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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75953-0.txt b/75953-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..132a466 --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1786 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75953 *** + +Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed. + New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the + public domain. + + +[Illustration: NANNIE.] + + + + A DAY IN THE COUNTRY + + AND OTHER STORIES + + + FROM + + "THE PANSY" + + + [Illustration] + + + BOSTON + D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY + FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS + + + + Copyright by + D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY + 1885 + + + + CONTENTS. + + + A DAY IN THE COUNTRY. + + WHY MADGE CHANGED HER MIND. + + NANNIE'S LESSON. + + FOOLISH CHILDREN. + + SOME CURIOUS FISHES. + + TIME ENOUGH. + + A CUP OF COLD WATER. + + ON NANTUCKET WHARF. + + LILY DAY. + + THE GREENLANDER. + + SOME YOUNG HEROES. + + THE SECRET OF IT. + + THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY. + + THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY. + + + + _A DAY IN THE COUNTRY_ + + _AND OTHER STORIES_ + + + + A DAY IN THE COUNTRY. + +THEY were on their way to Sabbath-school that pleasant September +morning. Maggie and Lottie Barnes, Delia and Sallie Shaw. They lived in +the city of Boston. + +Because they lived in a large city, do not go and make a picture in +your mind of four little ladies with new fall suits of silk or velvet, +or soft cashmere, and new hats with nodding plumes or flying ribbons, +and trim boots, very high, and trim gloves very long, and many buttons +everywhere, because that will not be at all a true picture. + +Their dresses were all faded and worn. Maggie wore an old black shawl +of her mother's, that trailed a little on the ground. Delia considered +herself royally arrayed in a rusty old black velvet sack much too large +for her, while Lottie had no protection front the cool autumn air but a +soiled and faded blue silk handkerchief spread over her shoulders, her +hat, in spite of being loaded down with purple ribbon and red roses, +went sailing off her head with every gust of wind that came along, +because it had no rubber on it. Then poor Sallie had on low shoes much +too large for her. They would keep getting down at the heel and coming +off as she clattered along, and she had often to stoop over and adjust +them. With these hindrances of hat and shoes of course they could not, +you see, go on in a very orderly manner. + +They were discussing something in very loud tones. Nobody had ever told +them it was rude to talk loud in the streets. + +They were bemoaning the fact that all the girls they knew except +themselves, had been to the country to spend a few days. + +"I wanted to go so much," little Sallie said, tugging at her shoe as +she spoke; "I wanted to see some flowers growing. I should think we +might have gone as well as the rest," said Delia. "I think it's mean to +skip us." + +"The money give out," said Lottie, clutching at her hat to prevent its +escape. + +"Money is the matter with most everything," Maggie said, drawing her +shawl closer about her with a grown-up air, and a grown-up sigh. + +The money of which the children talked was "The Fresh Air Fund," a sum +of money that good men and women raised to give poor children who live +in the great city a chance to go into the country for a few days, and +breathe the sweet air, run on the grass, pick flowers, and drink fresh +milk, all about which they knew nothing. This Mission School was very +large, but nearly all had been to the country; some for two whole weeks. + +By some means these little girls had been overlooked. + +Mrs. Eastman, their teacher, had been absent from her class for six +weeks, and all were glad to see her pleasant face in the teacher's +chair this morning. + +"Now I suppose you must first tell me what a fine time you had in the +country," she said "but as our class is so large, we shall not be able +to hear a story from each one. Let all who had a good time in the +country raise their hands." + +The hands went up instantly—all except four. + +They sat together, so Mrs. Eastman had no trouble in seeing their hands +were not raised, and that they did not wear the bright look of the +other children. + +"What is the matter here?" she asked kindly. "No hands up this end of +the class? Maggie, Lottie, how is it? Did you not like the country?" + +"We never went to no country," the little girls responded in a chorus. + +After Mrs. Eastman had inquired all about it, and heard how much they +wished to go, and said how sorry she was that it had happened so, she +wrote down very carefully their names, and just where they lived. + +Then she asked them if they had ever told Jesus about it. + +"No, we never did," they said. + +"Well, my dear little girls," she said, "don't you know when you have +trouble, there is where you must take it? You must tell Jesus to-night +how much you want to go to the country, and ask him to send you. You +know it would not be a good thing for you to go for a long visit, now +that your schools have opened, but if you could go for one day, would +you not like it?" + +"Oh, yes, yes!" they all answered again. + +"Well you ask him, and then wait and see what he will do." + +It was almost as good as going to the country to have such loving eyes +look into theirs, and say, "My dear little girls!" They all promised to +do as she wished them to. + +"I don't see how it'll be done," Maggie said, on the way home, "when +the money is all gone; but teacher said Jesus could do hard things." + + +Monday was a long day, because these little girls were expecting +something to happen. For had not teacher said, "Ask Jesus, and see what +he will do for you?" + +Sun enough, great news was waiting them when they got home. Maggie and +Lottie came running over to Mrs. Shaw's all out of breath. + +"Look at that!" said Maggie, holding out a note written on rose tinted +paper, in letters almost as plain as print. + +"Look at that!" said Sallie, holding up the mate to it. + +"Teacher's been to our house," said Maggie. + +"And teacher's been to our house!" Sallie responded triumphantly. + +These notes from "Teacher" were invitations for the little girls to +spend the day with her at her country home on Saturday. They were +to take the seven o'clock train at the Old Colony station, and ride +about fifteen miles, and there Mrs. Eastman would be waiting with her +carriage. + +Think of that! A carriage waiting for them! + + +The day came at last. Great had been the preparations all the week; +each Sunday dress had been made as nice as washing, ironing and mending +could make it. And they were all at the-depot by half-past six, in a +high state of excitement. + +The day was perfect. They enjoyed every minute of the ride in the cars. +The conductor had orders to leave them at a certain station. No sooner +had they stepped from the cars, than they saw the smiling face of their +teacher. They were soon seated in a handsome carriage and rolling +over a smooth road. The air was sweet and pure, the birds sang, the +squirrels skipped about in the trees, and the golden October sunshine +made the world beautiful that morning. + +"So you told Jesus about it, did you?" Mrs. Eastman asked. + +"Yes'm, we did," said little Sallie. "We told him Sunday night, and he +'tended to it the first thing Monday morning." + +[Illustration: MAKING WREATHS FOR THEIR HATS.] + + + + WHY MADGE CHANGED HER MIND. + +GRANDMA'S room was the very handsomest one in the house. Madge and +Nellie thought it was the pleasantest at least. + +A bay window overlooked the street, where busy people came and went; +two other large windows, that were doors as well, opened on to a +piazza, and that piazza was a delightfully cool place to sit, on warm +days. + +Grandma's large chair was out there most of the time in summer. Then +she had to take but a few steps and she was in the flower garden. In +winter the plants were in the conservatory, of course, and a glass door +from grandma's room opened into that too. + +Between her pretty bedroom and the large room were folding doors. There +were soft carpets and lace curtains, pictures, great easy-chairs, and +everything for use and comfort and prettiness that could be thought of, +for everybody in the house thought nothing was too fine and nice for +grandma, and that was just as it should be. + +It was a bright September morning, but cool enough for grandma to have +a fire snapping on her brass andirons in the fireplace. + +Some people dread to grow old, because they are so foolish as to think +that young folks have all the good looks; but that is a great mistake. +Grandma made just as pretty a picture in her black dress, white cap, +and soft mull handkerchief folded about her neck, with her red knitting +work in her lap, and the fire shining on her silver hair, as Madge and +Nellie did over in the window in blue dresses, though their heads were +brown and curly, and their cheeks round, and smooth, and rosy. + +They were busy with pencil and paper, making out a list of little girls +who were to be invited to their birthday party. + +It happened that both birthdays came in September, and so they could be +celebrated together. + +"Shall we invite Minnie Dale?" asked Nellie. + +"No; of course not," Madge answered with a curl of her pretty lip. + +"Why not?" said Nellie. "She's the best girl in school, and she's +pretty too." + +"Well, it won't do," Madge declared, with the air and tone of a much +older young lady than ten. "She doesn't belong." + +"Belong to what? She belongs to our day-school and our Sunday-school." + +"Oh, what a little stupid you are," laughed Madge. "She doesn't belong +to our set, of course. Do you know where she lives? She lives in that +little bit of a brown house way down on Cedar street, just about as big +as our smoke house." + +"Does she?" said her sister. "Why, I thought she was as good as any +of us. She always wears pretty dresses, and she acts—well, sort o' +stylish." + +"You mustn't say sort o'," said Madge. "You mean she has pretty +manners; that's what they call it. Oh, yes; she's nice enough, but what +do you suppose Elsie Melbourne, and Clara Haines, and Lina Vedder would +say to meeting a girl here who lives in such a hut as that, no matter +how she looks and acts?" + +"Sure enough!" Nellie answered. "It would not do, would it?" + +Grandma arose just then and went to the bureau. She brought out a small +rosewood box, and sitting down again by the fire, unlocked it. This +drew the children's attention. They always liked to get a peep into +grandma's treasures. She had so many curious and pretty things, and +told such nice stories about them. So they came over to her, and this +was just what she wished them to do. + +"Do you want to see my old home?" Grandma said as she brought out a +drawing and handed it to them. + +"Why, grandma, what do you mean?" they both said at once. + +"Why, this is a log house!" Madge said. + +"And it's such a little bit of a house!" said Nellie. + +"Now, grandma, you truly didn't ever live there?" + +"I truly did!" grandma answered. "And a prettier home, or a happier one +you never saw. + +"When I was married, I went with your grandfather to live in this +little house. It stood among the trees, and there was a brook not far +away that went racketing over the stones. We used to take long walks in +summer, after tea; in summer evenings following up that little brook. +Sometimes it ran through green meadows, and then it wound and twisted +itself around the hills and on into the dark, cool woods. There were +moss-covered stones in it, and ferns and violets grew on its banks: +such a pretty place as you never saw, my dears!" + +"But how could you live in such a very little house?" + +"Oh! Plenty of room," said grandma. "You wouldn't believe it to look +at it, but in that house we had a parlor, bedroom, dining-room and +kitchen. When we bought it, it had but one large room with a shed at +the back. So we set to work to make a nice place of it. + +"First of all your grandfather made the old shed into the neatest +little kitchen with a corner cupboard. He whitewashed it and set up our +stove, and I put our new dishes in the cupboard, and it was as pretty +as a little girl's playhouse. The large room was a bare rough place, +but we made it white and pure with lime, and I made a curtain out of +some pretty chintz calico, and pat it across one side of the room, and +that was my bedroom; you see your grandma invented curtains between +rooms, which are now so fashionable, long ago. Well, when we had our +carpet down, and our pictures up, our books on the shelf, and our round +table with a sage-green cloth over it, a bright fire snapping in the +great old fireplace, an old armchair one side of the fire and my sewing +rocker on the other, I say, there was no neater, prettier place in the +whole world." + +"But grandma, where were your parlor and dining-room?" + +"My child, the parlor and dining-room were all in one. The end of the +room next the kitchen was the dining-room: when meal time came it was +a dining-room, and when meals were over we just cleared off the table, +turned down the leaves, set it back against the wall and put a spread +on it, and the room was a parlor again; don't you see?" + +"Were you just as happy as you are in this handsome house?" asked +Madge, casting her eyes over the beautiful room. + +"Some of the happiest years of my life were spent in this dear humble +home," grandma said as she replaced the picture in the box with a last +loving look at it. + +"Just think," said wise Nellie, looking thoughtfully into the fire, "if +grandma was a little girl now she couldn't come to our party because +she lived in a log house." + +"There is somebody greater than grandma you would shut out if He were +here," grandma said; "the Lord Jesus himself had no fine house. He said +the foxes and the birds had houses, but he had none." + +They went back to their work of making out a list. + +"Madge," Nellie said pretty soon, "I guess Jesus won't be pleased +with such a party as we are getting up. If you don't care, I mean to +ask mamma to let me have my party by myself some day, and I'll invite +Minnie Dale and that lame girl, and that Jessie Moore in our class that +wears calico dresses." + +"Nellie Bryant," said Madge, "don't you suppose I want to please Jesus +too, instead of Elsie Melbourne, or Clara Vedder, or any of them? I +never thought how it would seem to him; we'll ask Minnie Dale and +everybody else mamma thinks best. If grandma lived in a poor little +house once, who knows but Minnie Dale will live in a grander house than +any of us some day?" + +"Yes; and just think," Nellie answered, "if papa should lose his money +like Mr. Strong, and we have to go into a little bit of a house, +wouldn't it seem dreadful to have the girls leave us out when they made +parties, and we would be the very same girls we always were, too?" + + + + NANNIE'S LESSON. + +LITTLE Nannie Greyson was sitting on her front piazza one bright June +morning, when everything around was fresh and bright, but Nannie +herself was blind to all this beauty by which she was surrounded, for +she had just received a new book, and was already deep in its pages. + +Nannie was a very pretty little girl about nine years old. She had +a fair skin, large blue eyes and golden hair, not long, but falling +to her neck in short, pretty curls. Any one looking at her that June +morning would immediately pronounce her very nice and lovable indeed. + +The front door behind her is standing open, and presently a lady comes +through the wide hall, and stands behind the little girl. She looks +down at her without speaking, and the little girl finally becoming +aware of her presence looks up into her face with a smile which makes +her if anything, more sweet and lovable. + +"O! Mamma," she exclaims, "my book is so nice." + +And drawing a deep sigh of satisfaction she prepares to return to it. +But her mamma is speaking, and she stops to listen, although very +reluctantly, I am sorry to say. + +"Nannie," her mamma says, "I want you to come and amuse Herbie while I +am busy in the kitchen." + +Herbie was Nannie's two-year-old brother, and a lively little fellow to +take care of. + +Minnie threw down her book, and when she looked up, you would scarcely +have recognized her as the same sweet little girl who looked so happy a +few moments before. An angry frown had settled on the smooth forehead +over the blue eyes; there was a fretful expression on her lips, and +she was entirely transformed from the bright, pretty little girl whose +mouth had been all smiles, to a peevish child with a pout on her lips +which was not at all becoming. + +"O, mamma, must I leave my book to take care of that tiresome baby? It +seems to me I never sit down to read but you want me to do something +for you." + +She knew she must go, though, and she got up slowly, going through the +hall, up the staircase, and into the nursery at the head of the stairs, +pouting and cross. She knew that her mamma was deeply grieved, and she +knew also that she never would have called her from her book had it not +been necessary. + +[Illustration: HERBIE.] + +But still she pouted, while Herbie tried in his baby fashion to comfort +her, for he saw something was wrong. She could not resist his baby +coaxing very long, and her ill-humor soon vanished, and they had a +merry game of romps. + +Two or three hours afterward while playing with a little friend on +the back piazza, she tore a bad hole in her dress. Running up-stairs +to find mamma, she found her after a little search in the nursery +seated by the window, in her rocking-chair with a book in her hand, a +very unusual thing for Nannie's mamma, and Herbie at her feet, busily +engaged with his toys. Nannie hastened up to her, saying: + +"O, mamma, just see what I have done; won't you please mend it 'quick.'" + +Her mamma, instead of looking up with her bright smile and ready +consent, threw down her book impatiently, exclaiming, as she did so: + +"Oh dear, Nannie, must I leave my nice book just to mend that tear? It +seems to me I never sit down to read, but you want me to do something +for you." + +Nannie's eyes filled with tears, for she recognized her own words, and +knew that mamma meant to rebuke her in this way. She raised her eyes to +her mamma's face, as if asking for pardon, and as her mamma stretched +out her arms, she sprang into them, sobbing her confession there. + +Nannie had learned a lesson, and one that she never forgot. + + + + FOOLISH CHILDREN. + +MRS. TOPKNOT is having trouble in her family to-night. Two weeks ago +she was very happy when twelve soft, downy darlings gathered under her +wings. + +She is not so happy now, because some of them have been naughty. + +It was just after dinner, when mamma Topknot was taking a nap, that +they took it into their heads. + +Whitey began it. She was a proud little thing, all white, with not a +black feather about her. She thought she was the prettiest and smartest +of the whole brood. + +"Our feathers are all out now," Whitey said. "We're growing up. Let's +take a little walk by ourselves." + +"That's so," said Blackey, "we'll do just that thing. Come on, right +off, while mother's asleep; we'll get back before ever she wakes." + +"Won't it be fun?" whispered Speckle. "Come on, all of you, and don't +make a bit of noise." + +"I'm not going to stir a single step," little Dove declared. "I'm going +to stay close by my mother." + +Then every little chick looked up in astonishment, to think that gentle +little Dovie would dare to speak her mind so plainly. + +"She's afraid!" said Spot. "She's afraid a big grasshopper will carry +her off." + +"I am afraid to disobey my mother," Dovie chirped out sweetly. "She +said we were never to go anywhere without her till she gave us leave." + +"Come on, right off, everybody who wants to go," said Blackey, marching +off, calling out as he looked behind him: + +"I know where there are some big strawberries!" + +"I know where there's a great black dog," piped little Gray. "I'm not +going." + +"Nor I," said Brownie. + +So away went the naughty nine chickens, and the three little good ones +stayed at home. + +They had a splendid time, for Bobby brought his apron full of chickweed +and threw it on the barn floor. They could get little bits of it, even +with their small bills. + +[Illustration: MAMMA TOPKNOT AND HER FAMILY.] + +When mamma Topknot awoke, she looked about for her children. + +Only three to be found! Where could the others be? She looked all about +and called, but they did not come. Supper time came, and still they had +not arrived. + +"Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!" went mother Topknot about the barnyard, as if +she would go wild. + +Where could they be? If she could only squeeze herself through the hole +under the fence by which they got out, she would go in search of them. + +The supper was nearly all eaten up by the other old hens before she +knew what they were about. She managed to save only enough for the +three little chicks who had stayed at home. + +Just as it began to grow dark, when their mother had given them up, and +had settled down with a sad heart to take care of what children she had +left, they came. + +They hopped through the fence one after another, till they all stood +before her, a guilty little huddle. + +Just a minute before, mamma Topknot had thought she would give all her +feathers if she could only see them alive once more, and now just as +soon as she had them, she fell to scolding them. + +Oh, how she scolded! And such a hubbub as there was. Speckle stood off +by herself and actually talked back. Two or three of the others tried +to tell how it wasn't their fault, they never would have thought of +such a thing. Then they all talked at once and told how hungry they +were and said they never would run away again. + +Gray and Brownie stuck their heads from under their mother's feathers +to see how things were going, while little Dove got up on her mother's +back and tried to help scold. + +Blackey scud around behind his mother as soon as he came in and poked +his head up under her wing as if he thought he could make her believe +he never had been away. + +After they had all cried and said they were sorry, mother Topknot began +to pity them, they looked so cold and tired, and so she forgave them +and cuddled them all under her wings once more. + +Of course they had to go to bed without any supper, but that taught +them a good lesson. They never did run away again. + +That was not the only reason, though—the going without their supper. +They had a fearful time. They told about it next day. + +The great black dog chased them, a cat almost got one of them, and a +boy threw stones at them. + + + + SOME CURIOUS FISHES. + +I DON'T suppose you think there are any fishes that can either walk or +live any time out of water. Yet there are. + +The gurnard is one of the most important of the walking fish. M. +Deslongchamp had an artificial fish-pond on the shores of Normandy, in +which several of these creatures were. When he waded in the pond, he +could easily see all their movements. + +On one occasion, when he was watching them in this way, he saw them +close their fins against their sides, and walk along the ground by +means of six slender legs, three on each pectoral fin. By these they +can walk very fast. + +The square-browed malthe can also walk, and can live out of water. +Sometimes it spends two or three days creeping over the land. The +reason that all fishes cannot stay out of water is because they are so +made that they have to breathe air through water. All fishes are this +way, but some can carry water in their gills both for breathing and +drinking purposes for several days. + +The grouper fish is very queer in that it will swallow such curious +things, which you would not think it could possibly digest. One was +caught on the coast of Queensland which, when opened, was found to have +in its stomach two broken bottles, a quart pot, a preserved milk-tin, +seven crabs, a piece of earthenware encrusted with oyster shells, a +sheep's head, some mutton and beef bones, and some oyster shells. + +There is a crab in the Keeling Islands, that lives on the land all day, +returning to the water only at night to moisten its gills. It also eats +cocoanuts, opening the shell with its huge claws, and the natives of +the islands say that it climbs the trees to get them. This, however, is +not known. + +Thus we see that there are some very curious fishes; yet none of them +have mind, and are not to be compared with man. Let us be thankful, +then, that God made us human beings, and not fishes. + + + + TIME ENOUGH. + +ELMER'S new suit had just come home. + +It was brown, with dashes of green in it. It fitted him exactly, and +everybody knows it makes one feel good-natured when his new clothes fit +well. When he tried them on, nobody jerked his pantaloons down, said +they were too short, nor twitched his jacket up and said it was too low +in the neck. + +He laid them carefully over the back of a chair that night before he +went to bed, then got out a clean collar and a green necktie, tucked a +handkerchief into the side pocket of the jacket, and surveyed them all +with a satisfied look. + +Morning came, bright and splendid as anybody could wish. The steamboat +with flying flags stood at the wharf, and a happy company of boys and +girls, dressed in white and pink and red and blue, marched through the +streets to the sound of music. + +The procession passed through the great gates and were all comfortably +settled on the boat fifteen minutes before it was time to start. + +Elmer's home was a long walk from the church where the other scholars +met, so he went directly to the steamboat landing. + +He had just bought a new set of marbles. They were beauties, and when +he met Will Porter, he could not resist the temptation to try his +new marbles on the broad, smooth paving-stones just above the gates +where no people were passing at this early hour. The game became so +fascinating, that the boys played on, even after the procession had +gone on board. + +"Come on," Will said; "we'll be late." + +"Oh, no! We won't be late. The boat will not start this quarter of an +hour," Elmer answered, aiming a great blue marble at a red one. + +Now the superintendent and the teachers had warned the school many +times, "The gates will be closed at seven o'clock. If you are not on +the other side of them by that time, you cannot go." + +"Be prompt, boys and girls," Mr. Willard had said as he dismissed +the Sabbath-school. "Do not come hurrying along at the last minute. +Our trip next Wednesday is one of our lessons, and it will teach +punctuality in rather a severe manner if one of you stands sorrowfully +peeping through that big gate at us, while we glide off down the river. +It will certainly spoil your pleasure and ours too if you are too late." + +Not a boy who heard him thought that talk was meant for him. "'I' shall +be in time," they told themselves; "of course I shall." + +Elmer and Will had each a great fault. Elmer's was procrastination. He +was always saying, "Wait a minute," "There's plenty of time," or "I'll +do it by and by." Because of this habit, he was never known to be in +time anywhere. His father had given him a watch at Christmas to see if +that would not help him to improve, but it did not; he went on saying, +"Time enough." Everybody had to wait for him. + +When the rest of the family were ready for church, he would rush +through the house like a hurricane, pulling and panting, up-stairs and +down, calling out: + +"Oh, dear! Can't somebody help me? Won't Mary black my boots? Do come +and fix on my collar! Has anybody seen my lesson paper?" + +And so the whole house would run here and there, waiting upon one who +had dawdled away the whole morning. + +[Illustration: THE BOAT STEAMED DOWN THE RIVER.] + +Will's fault was different. He had no mind of his own. He was always +ruled by the person he happened to be with, and never could say "No" to +anybody, no matter what his judgment or his conscience told him. + +He was uneasy now, and thought they ought to go that minute, but he +played on, though he did say: "It's time to go, I know it is; the gates +will be shut." + +"No, they won't be shut either," Elmer said, drawing out his watch; +"it's exactly ten minutes before they close. We can finish this game in +five, and have plenty of time." + +Watches do not always do their duty, any more than boys. Elmer's was +five minutes slow—it must have caught the disease from him. The game +went on. Will was going to win, he thought, and both boys grew excited +over it; finally they fell into a slight dispute. + +And—what was that? The steamboat bell! Clang! Ding, dong! Both boys +scrambled up their marbles and rushed to the gate. It was shut! They +shouted for the gate-keeper; he was nowhere in sight. + +They cried to the captain, "Wait! Wait!" + +But the clanging of the bell was their only answer. + +Then the call "All aboard!" + +The plank was drawn in, and the boat steamed down the river, the song +of the children floating back on the breeze. + +Sure enough! There they were, looking sorrowfully through the gate, +just as Mr. Willard had said. + +"It was all your fault," Will said. + +Then he turned and ran away as fast as he could lest Elmer should see +him crying. + +Elmer looked about, astonished to find himself alone and really left +behind. He could not believe it possible that the boat would not turn +about and take him. Everybody had always waited for him before. But +there they were, speeding on their way. It was too much! + +He was angry, and "so" disappointed. Left behind! And all for those +miserable mean marbles! He took them from his pocket and threw them as +far as he could. He would have scolded, but there was nobody there to +hear. He would have cried, but he thought he was too big. Oh, what a +fool he had been! Was there ever such a fool before? + +He did not want to go home; he did not want to go anywhere or do +anything. He sat down on a box and kicked his heels against it. What a +mean old world it was! + +Perhaps his good angel leaned over him just then, for his thoughts took +a sudden turn: + +"It was my fault," he said to himself. "I'm always too late, and +everybody's poking at me about it. Why can't I turn about and be like +other folks! I declare I 'will!' I'll begin this very day." + +He got down from his box at once and started towards home. In a little +old-fashioned house which he passed lived auntie Simons, an old lady +who was auntie to the whole town. She was out brushing off her front +steps. + +The old lady stopped, and leaning on her broom, looked over her +spectacles a minute to make sure that it was really Elmer. + +"Why, my child!" she said, as he came nearer. "What does all this mean? +I thought you had gone to a picnic." + +"I got left," Elmer said, his eyes fastened on the tree trunk near him. + +"Now you don't say! Too bad! Well, don't look so downhearted. Come in +and see me a spell. Come! I'm going to have flapjacks and maple syrup +for breakfast, and I know you are half-starved by this time; didn't +have time to snatch only a bite, now did you?" + +What boy could withstand the attractions of flapjacks and maple syrup? +Besides, he really was hungry. Excitement had prevented his eating much +breakfast, so in he went. + +While auntie Simons helped him bountifully to smoking hot cakes and +golden syrup, he told her all about it—how he came to be left, and how +he had resolved to turn over a new leaf. + +"Yes, it does seem foolish," the old lady said when they sat on the +porch after breakfast, "for you to lose a whole day's pleasure just by +waiting a little bit too long, when you might have gone as well as not; +but what shall we say of one who puts off coming to Christ until it is +too late? Don't you, dear boy, say 'Time enough' to that. You can't +tell how little time there may be left. You know when the gate down by +the wharf was shut on you, you had a chance to sit down and think it +all over, and make up your mind that you would be all right the next +time, anyhow; but you see when the door is shut at the last—in death—it +is shut 'forever.' It is open now. Jesus says, 'Come.' Do not put it +off, Elmer dear." + + + + A CUP OF COLD WATER. + +"PLEASE to get my china cup for me, Ann," Daisy said, coming in from +the "sweet out-doors," as she called it, where she had been trying to +read her new picture-book. + +Ann was shelling peas for dinner, and did not wish to be disturbed. + +"What do you want of your cup?" she asked crossly. + +"I want to get a drink for an old man." + +"Well, take the dipper." + +"No, the dipper won't do; I must have my cup, and I'm in a great hurry, +a 'fearful' hurry," Daisy said, imitating her brother Tom. + +"I can't be bothered with your notions," Ann said, making her fingers +fly very fast. "I'm in a hurry too; it's high time these peas were +cooking; besides, what old man is it? I don't believe your mother would +let you give a drink of water out of your cup to every old fellow that +came along if she was at home; like enough he's a tramp." + +"No, he isn't a tramp; he's a 'siple. He told me so." + +"A 'siple!" Ann said, bursting into a laugh. "What's that?" + +"Why, papa read about them in the Bible. They are Jesus' servants, and +he wants folks to give 'em a good drink of cold water when they are +firsty." + +[Illustration: DAISY.] + +"Well, I can't help it," said Ann, laughing again. "I can't be jumping +up from my work all the time to wait on everybody. Take a dipper, if +you must give him a drink." + +"Oh, dear!" cried Daisy. "I told you the dipper wouldn't do. It said a +cup; and I want my very bufulest one—that one with little birds on it. +Come! Do get it for me." + +"Can't do it," Ann said, shelling peas with all her might. + +Poor Daisy was hot and tired. She rested her elbows on the doorsill, +and her chin on her hands, and looked very despairing. Two great tears +came into her eyes, and at last she buried her face in her white apron +and began to sob just as grandpa came along from the garden. + +"Tut! Tut!" said grandpa. "What's the matter with my pet?" + +He sat down on the step, drew Daisy to him, and wiped her warm, +tear-stained face with his clean linen handkerchief. It took but a few +seconds to make grandpa understand what the trouble was; then he got up +and said: + +"Come and show me where it is." + +The sun came out again on Daisy's face, and with her hand tightly +clasped in grandpa's, she pattered along to the dining-room closet—not +tired a bit now. + +Grandpa reached down the beautiful cup, then he got a pitcher and +filled it with good cold water, and they two went down the front walk +as fast as they could go. + +When old Mr. Burton started out that morning to walk to the next town, +he did not know what a very long, hot walk he had undertaken. He was a +stranger, and was on his way to his son's house. When he left the cars, +the stage had gone. He was too poor to hire a carriage to take him +over, so he had to walk five miles in a burning sun. + +As he jogged along, he grew very thirsty. He wished there was a spring +by the roadside, but there was none. He came in sight of a large white +house on the hill, and said to himself: + +"I have a great notion to go in there and get a drink of water; but +then, they are rich folks. They would take me for a tramp, and maybe +set the dog on me." + +As he came slowly along, looking up at the broad lawn with cool shadows +of the great trees over it, he spied at the front gate a little girl. +Her rosy face was hidden away in a white sunbonnet, but her blue eyes +looked up smilingly. + +"Be you a 'siple?" she asked shyly. + +[Illustration: GRANDPA.] + +"A what?" the old man said, looking down. + +"A 'siple. Do you love Jesus?" + +"Oh, you mean a disciple! Yes, little one, I belong to the Lord Jesus," +Mr. Burton said. + +"Do you want a drink of water?" + +"Yes, indeed, my dear." + +"Then I'll bring you one." + +And Daisy's white dress vanished among the bushes while, the tired old +man sat on the green grass at the edge of the walk and waited. + +He was beginning to think he should see no more of her, when she +appeared with a pretty china cup full of cold water; then grandpa came +with the pitcher full, and the thirsty traveller had all the water he +needed. + +Grandpa invited him into the house to get a lunch before he went. +Then Prince was harnessed and brought round, and grandpa said he had +promised Daisy that he would take her to ride, and they might as well +drive toward Woodbury as anywhere. So they all got into the carriage, +and old Prince trotted off. The road was so smooth, the air so sweet, +and the talk so pleasant, that before they knew it, they were at +Woodbury; and there they left Mr. Burton. + +He said he never should forget the little girl who brought him the cup +of cold water, but that every day of his life he would ask God to bless +her. + +The verse that Daisy meant can be found in Matthew x:42. + + + + ON NANTUCKET WHARF. + +ALL was bustle and confusion in Mrs. Maynard's house in Boston, for she +and her daughter Mattie were going to Nantucket Beach to stay a night, +then to the Island Home to spend a week. It was the first time Mattie +had been on the cars, for she was only six years old, and she had been +but very few times on the steamboat. + +At last they started. They were to go to New Bedford by the cars, and +there to take a steamboat for Nantucket. + +They had a very pleasant time at Nantucket, and Mattie arose bright and +early on the morning in which she was to take her ride to Island Home. +The boat was to start at ten o'clock. There was a great crowd on the +wharf and Mattie held tight her mother's hand for fear she might get +lost. + +"Why, there is Mr. Ridgeway!" Mrs. Maynard said. "He is an old friend +of mine and I must speak to him." + +And she dropped Mattie's hand, and pushed through the crowd. + +Mattie did not like her mother to leave her, but she stood still where +she left her, so that she might be sure and find her when she came back. + +She waited there a long time, but no Mrs. Maynard was to be seen. +Mattie was very much frightened, and tried to get back to the place +where her mother left her, but the crowd was so great that she could +hardly move at all, for a little girl was not noticed at all in it. + +After wandering about for awhile, a gruff voice called: + +"Passengers for the Island Home all aboard! Boat goes in ten minutes! +All aboard! All aboard!" + +Everybody began to push forward, and soon the wharf was nearly empty. + +Mattie knew her mother had not bought her ticket, and she went up +to the ticket-office and asked the man if a "pretty lady in a linen +duster, with a red feather in her hat, bought a ticket for the Island +Home?" + +"Do you think I keep account in a note-book of the color of all the +folks' dresses and what kind of feathers they have on their hats?" he +asked gruffly. + +Mettle did not know what to say to this, so she said nothing, but +wandered off to the farther part of the wharf and climbed up on some +bags that lay behind a pile of boxes there. On these she knelt down and +said: + +"Dear Jesus, let mamma find me soon, and keep me safely till she comes. +For Jesus' sake. Amen." + +She repeated this simple prayer many times, and then went out from +behind the pile of boxes again. She was very thirsty, and was very glad +when she saw a faucet and a tin cup at the side of the ticket-office. +She took a drink and was much refreshed, but was very tired, and she +thought she would go and rest on the bags behind the boxes. She sat +down on these, and was soon fast asleep. She awoke about four o'clock +in the afternoon, and as she was rubbing her eyes and wondering where +she was, she was startled by a voice exclaiming: + +"And what's the loikes of this, shure?" + +She looked up, and saw a gruff, but kindly-seeming man looking down at +her. He was evidently a working-man, for he had his dinner-pail in his +hand, and was leaning on a pick-axe and shovel. + +Said Mattie: + +"I'm Mattie Maynard, and I'm lost. That is, mamma left me on the wharf +in the crowd, and didn't come back, and I'm awful hungry." + +"And shure and me name is not Patrick O' Flannigan if I don't give ye +something to eat. Poor gir-r-l!" + +Whereupon he opened his pail and offered her a generous ham sandwich. + +"Oh, thank you ever so much!" cried Mattie, as she took a large bite. + +True, the bread was sour and the butter was strong, but Mattie was so +hungry that she did not notice the defects in the food. Patrick sat +down on the bags and watched her eat with great interest. + +"An' ye can eat now, can't ye? Poor little gir-r-l! But I must be +a-goin', shure!" + +And he got up and went off the wharf. + +There were many steamboats coming and going at Nantucket wharf, and +Mattie climbed up on the boxes and watched the crowds as they passed by. + +But at last night came on, and Mattie did not know what to do. She +crept in among the bags, and covered herself up, but they smelled bad, +and she knew she could not sleep on them all night. She thought once +she would ask the ticket agent to let her stay in the ticket-office, +but he had spoken so crossly to her that morning that she did not like +to. She was not very sleepy, because of the long nap she had taken in +the daytime, and wandered about on the wharf till about eleven o'clock, +and then she went and sat down on the bags and fell asleep. + +[Illustration: THE ISLAND HOME LEAVES THE WHARF.] + +When she woke up, the morning sun was streaming into her eyes, and from +the hurrying to and fro of many feet, she knew that the morning steamer +had come in from the Island Home. She got up and watched the crowd, for +she thought maybe her mother might have gone to the Island Home, after +all, and had come back. + +Sure enough! Just as the crowd had passed, she saw the "red feather" on +her mother's hat and gave a little scream of delight as she saw her go +over and speak to the ticket agent. She ran eagerly over to her, pulled +her dress and called: + +"Mamma! Mamma! Here I am!" + +Her mother turned suddenly and caught her in her arms and cried: + +"My darling child!" + +Then the whole story came out. Mrs. Maynard had been detained about +half an hour in getting through the crowd, and when she finally came +to where she had left Mattie, and she was not there, she was very much +frightened, and found Mr. Ridgeway again, and told him about it. + +They followed the crowd into town, and, following them everywhere, +ascertained that she was not among them. They anxiously turned back to +the wharf just, as the steamer pulled up, and the crowd began to rush +on board. They hoped that Mattie might also have gone on the steamer, +and went through it hunting for her. But while they were hunting, the +boat started, and Mrs. Maynard was obliged to stay at the Island Home +all night, and was just coming off the steamer when she was discovered +by Mattie. They took the ten o'clock boat for the Island Home, and +spent a very happy week there. But as Mattie was going to bed that +night, she said: + +"Mamma, I want to tell you something." + +"Well, darling?" + +"I asked God to have you find me, and to keep me safe till you did, and +I think that is the reason you did." + +"Yes, darling, I think so too; and I thank him very much for sparing my +Mattie to me. Let us kneel down and tell him so now." + + + + LILY DAY. + +IT was surprising, how many people were of the same mind that week. +The cause of it was lilies. It seemed as if there must have been a +convention of lilies held in Fairview at that time, for they were out +in full glory. + +The tall tiger lilies blazed and glowed in the sunshine; the day lilies +opened their white bells, the yellow lilies gleamed like gold, and away +down on Silver Lake, lovely pond lilies, cool, and pure, and white, +with golden hearts, lay amid broad green leaves. + +The people who first got the idea in their heads that it would be nice +to put some lilies in the church that week, were very young people. In +fact, it came into one little head first—Kitty Grey's. + +And how could she help thinking up all manner of splendid plans, when +she lived so near to the beautiful lake that from her window up-stairs +she could look across to the other shore and see here and there white +blossoms on the water. She clapped her hands with joy when she first +discovered them, and ran down-stairs crying: + +"They're out! They're out! Mamma, can't Ray and I go in the boat and +get some pond lilies right away now?" + +Silver Lake was a shallow little thing—a saucerful of water, papa +said—and Ray, though a little fellow, could manage a boat nicely. Mamma +readily gave consent, and it was but a few minutes before Kitty sat in +the stern of the boat, drawing her hand through the water, her very +dearest friend Mabel in the bow, and Ray rowing with all his might to +the spot where those wonderful lilies floated white and fair. + +"I know what we'll do," Kitty said, as they filled the large basket +they had brought with them as full as it could hold. "We'll trim the +church for to-morrow." + +"So we will," said Mabel. + +And Ray said: + +"All right; that will be splendid. I'll get a lot of ferns to put with +these." + +About that time, old Mrs. Parks was walking her garden, trimming off +dead leaves and cutting flowers. She came along to a large bunch of red +lilies, and clipped them off. + +"We haven't had any flowers in church this long time," she said to +herself. "I'll just send these over. They are such handsome things, +it's a pity everybody shouldn't enjoy them." + +So she brought them into the house, got down from the top shelf of the +pantry an old blue pitcher, and putting her flowers in it, filled it +with water, promising herself to take them to the parsonage between +daylight and dark. + +"Cinthy's tasty, and she can fix them up in shape for the church," she +said. + +Cynthia Morrow was the minister's daughter. She herself had a plan for +making the little church beautiful—to smile a welcome to the Sabbath +morning. + +Down at the end of the garden was a plot of day lilies. They belonged +to her. She had put them out herself, and watched and watered them, +and waited for them, and now this week they blossomed out in queenly +beauty. She intended to surprise her father next morning. How pleased +he would be to find his favorite flower on the pulpit desk, its pure +whiteness and its rare sweetness sending up incense with the songs of +praise. + +The next one who gathered lilies was Miss Alice Lynde. She was a young +lady from New York, spending the summer with her uncle in Fairview. + +Miss Alice took long walks every day over the fields and hills, and so +her cheeks, which were pale when she came from the city, were getting +to be the color of wild roses. + +This morning her walk happened to be longer than usual. She went +farther out into the country than she had ever been before, lured on by +a glimpse of bright yellow flowers she could see in the distance. They +turned out to be lilies. Miss Alice was delighted. She filled her arms +with them at once, thinking while she chose the finest blossoms what a +lovely bouquet she would make for the church. + +It would seem as if all the people who had been gathering lilies that +day had made an appointment to meet at the church after tea that +evening, but they never had, though they all met. + +Nobody felt quite at liberty to carry their flowers to the church. It +might look as if they had set up to interfere with somebody's else +arrangements. So all made their way to the parsonage at that pleasant +time between the day and night when country people run in to see each +other. + +Each one found that Cynthia was already at the church; gone to carry +over some flowers, her mother said. + +What was Cynthia's surprise, as she stood on the platform arranging her +vases, to see Kitty and Ray come in tugging a large basket full of pond +lilies and ferns. + +"Oh, what beauties! I am so glad you brought them," Cynthia was saying +when Mrs. Parks put her head in at the door. + +"I s'pose you've got flowers enough without these," she said, holding +out a great bunch of red lilies. + +"Oh, no, indeed!" Cynthia said. "How pretty they will be with the white +ones! I wish we had somebody to help us arrange them." + +While they were all bending over the flowers admiring them, a little +rustle was heard, and when they looked up, there was Miss Alice gliding +softly down the aisle with a great sheaf of yellow lilies in her arms. +She made a pretty picture to the children's eyes, her white dress and +white hat, her smiling face, and the lovely flowers. + +Their admiring "O—h—" was not meant for the flowers alone. + +"I should say that all the lilies in the country have agreed to come +here and hold a meeting," said Mrs. Parks. + +Miss Alice pulled off her gloves and went to work. She knew just how +to arrange flowers. Mrs. Parks went home for some pans, Ray went for +water, and Kitty hunted up some vases, while Cynthia sorted the flowers. + +How lovely it was when all was done! There was a bank of pond lilies +and ferns just under the pulpit. There was a mound of red and white +lilies on the table, and vases on the desk of pure white and green +only. Cynthia said that must be so. And then there was a masterpiece +of beauty, made by Miss Alice's skilful fingers—a sort of pyramid of +flowers, all colors mingled, with feathery ferns drooping about the +whole. + + +Next morning at church everybody was surprised, because, as a rule, +they did not have flowers in church at Fairview, beyond a simple +handful in a vase. Nobody, though, was more surprised than the +self-appointed flower committee themselves were when the minister's +text was announced. They could not resist smiling at each other. + +You see Mr. Morrow had been noticing the flowers rather more than usual +that week. Even while he was considering what his text should be, his +eye fell on a cluster of tall white lilies. He found himself studying +their graceful shapes, their whiteness and fragrance, and then began +to wonder at the thought that the same great God who made the worlds, +made the tiny flowers, and that he took so much pains, making so many +different shapes and colors, each with its own rare fragrance, to +please us because he loves us. + +It was not strange, then, that Mr. Morrow's text should be, "Consider +the lilies." + + + + THE GREENLANDER. + +GREENLAND is a very cold country, much colder than it is here. For +three months in the year the sun is never seen; and for nearly nine +months the land is covered all over with snow. We have plenty of nice +fruit in summer, and many good things all the year round; but the poor +Greenlanders live mostly on seal's flesh, blubber, and oil. + +Poor, poor Greenlanders, they live so miserably; and, what is much +worse, many of them know nothing whatever of Jesus and his love! But +God loves them; for He loved the world, and gave "his only begotten +Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have +everlasting life," so that, if a Greenlander hears of Jesus, he too may +be saved. + +Now, some good men pitied the poor heathen in Greenland, and thought +they would like to go and tell them of Jesus, how he was born in +Bethlehem, how good and kind He was to every one, how He gave sight to +the blind, healed the sick, raised the dead, how He died on the Cross +for sinners, how He went to the grave and then to Heaven, how He will +come again. + +Well, they went to Greenland and labored there for eight long, weary +years. At last they got tired laboring so long without any apparent +success, and thought upon returning to their homes. They had suffered a +great deal from cold and hunger, and the people only laughed at them, +and mocked them. But these dear missionaries had made a great mistake, +for instead of telling the people as they meant to do of Jesus and his +great love in dying and rising again from the dead, telling the sweet, +sweet story of the Cross, they found them so very ignorant that the +missionaries thought to begin with proving that God lives, and that He +made all things. Now, this was a great mistake, for we are sinners, and +we need to know—not that God is the Creator, but that "God is love," +and that Jesus died. + +One day a party of heathen Greenlanders came to the missionary village. +They were led by a cruel and wicked Greenlander named Kajarnak, and +entered the hut where the missionary was writing. He was finishing his +final correction of the Four Gospels, and was at the moment engaged +on that part of John's Gospel relating to the sufferings and death of +Christ. Kajarnak was surprised at seeing the missionary writing, and at +once asked him what he was doing. + +"Writing." + +"Writing!" said Kajarnak. "What is writing?" + +The missionary tried to explain it to him, and then said, "I will read +you what I have been writing." + +He read the account of Christ's agony in the garden, and then upon the +Cross, with the story of his being crowned, scourged, and spit upon. As +he read, Kajarnak became interested. + +"And why," he asked, "did they treat the man so? What had he done?" + +"Oh!" said the missionary. "This man did nothing amiss, but Kajarnak +did. Kajarnak filled the land with wickedness; and Kajarnak deserved to +go to hell for it. But this man suffered all this to bear Kajarnak's +punishment, that Kajarnak might not go to hell." + +And then the missionary went on to tell about God's love, man's sin, +and Christ's work for sinners, till the big tears were seen to roll +down the poor heathen's cheeks, and unable any longer to restrain his +feelings, he cried— + +"Oh! Tell it all over again, for I, too, would like to be saved." + +He was told it all over again—it was such a sweet story. Kajarnak +believed the good news. His heart was drawn to Christ. He loved him. +Kajarnak was saved. + +Are you saved, dear young reader? You have often heard and often read +of Jesus and of his sufferings. Perhaps, too, you have often wept as +you thought of the cruel men scourging Jesus and spitting on his face. +But though you cry very much, it won't save you. The blood of Jesus +puts sin away, and nothing else will do it. + +Will you now love Jesus? Poor Kajarnak, from "Greenland's icy +mountains," with a heart colder than the ice, and darker than the +darkest night, yet came to Jesus, believed in God's love, and was saved. + +How I long that all my dear young readers too would seek the same +Saviour, and love the Jesus that loved Kajarnak, the Greenlander. + + + + SOME YOUNG HEROES. + +IN a certain school, a knot of boys had their heads together disputing +about something. You could never guess what it was if you tried. It +would all have seemed strange to you: the schoolroom, the teacher, and +the scholars—their odd dress and odder speech. It was in far-off Asia, +and the scholars were not orderly as ours. The boys talked when they +pleased, and made so much din that one could scarcely hear themselves +think. + +Missionaries had come to this city and opened schools and churches to +teach the people that they must worship God alone, and that Jesus died +to save them. + +When the natives found that their boys were beginning to stray into +Protestant schools, they said, "We must start schools of our own," and +so they started one. But it was too late; some of the boys had already +learned to love Jesus, sing sweet hymns, and read the Bible. + +The teacher in this school was a very bitter enemy of the new religion, +so he listened sharply that day when he heard a discussion going on +among the boys. It was not in our language, but it was something like +this. + +One boy said it was not right to worship pictures of saints, nor to +kiss them, and burn candles before them. + +Another one said: "It 'is' right; it's the only true religion." + +Others joined in with the first boy, and said it was wrong, and that we +must worship none but God. + +Then the dispute grew warmer, and there were cries of "Heretic! +Heretic! Mean old heretic! Mean old Protestant!" and so on. + +The teacher had made up his mind that this thing must be stopped; that +the boys must not go any more where they would hear such bad doctrine, +so he said in a loud, strong voice: + +"Boys, stand up!" + +They all stood up. + +"Now let all the Protestants step out." + +He did not suppose that any one would dare to confess to him that he +was a Protestant, but those little Christians must have remembered the +solemn words of the Saviour, how he said: + + "If any men will confess me on the earth I also will confess him before +my father which is in heaven." + +There was a moment's pause, then seven little fellows stepped out. The +teacher was amazed. + +[Illustration: ONE OF THE SCHOLARS.] + +"What!" he said. "Don't you believe in worshiping the pictures of +saints?" + +"No, sir, we don't; mad please, sir," said the bravest of them all, "if +Jesus wanted us to worship pictures of the saints, wouldn't he have +left us his own picture to worship?" + +This was an unanswerable argument, but the tyrant teacher did not let +them know how they had cornered him. + +He said, "Boys, how shall these heretics be punished?" + +And the boys decided they must be "spit upon." + +So the whole school formed a procession and marched around those seven, +spitting upon them as they went. + +"Now sing!" the teacher said, and all the school except the seven +struck up one of their patriotic songs. + +"Sing, I tell you!" he said to the seven. + +"We will, if you will sing the songs of Jesus," was the grand answer of +the martyrs. + +"Sing it yourselves!" said the teacher. + +And, wonderful to tell, this sweet song came to the ears of the +astonished teacher: + + "Must Jesus bear the cross alone, + And all the world go free? + No, there's a cross for every one, + And there's a cross for me." + + + + THE SECRET OF IT. + +ONE October afternoon Frank Stevens was gathering apples in his +father's orchard. Great piles of golden pippins and rosy Baldwins lay +under the trees, waiting to be sorted and packed in the barrels that +were standing near. His brother Kent, many years older than himself, +was helping. It so happened that their work lay for a time near the +main road where people came and went. Leaning against the fence was Mr. +Marvin, who had stopped for a little neighborly chat. + +Down the hill, trotting leisurely along, came a black pony. On his back +was Harry Porter, one of Frank's schoolmates. He, too, drew up by the +fence, and as he called, "Halloo, Frank!" cast a longing eye at the red +apples. + +After chatting a few minutes, he trotted off again, an apple in his +hand, and two in each pocket. + +"That's a splendid boy!" said Mr. Kent Stevens. + +"Yes; there's the making of a fine man in him," answered Mr. Marvin; +"he's uncommonly bright, I noticed him at the examination last spring; +clear as a bell he was, working hard examples and talking off the +explanation as glibly as the professor himself. I reckon it would have +puzzled some of us committee to have done it." + +Frank listened in silence as the talk went on while he sorted the fair +apples from the knurly. He had a gloomy, cross look on his face, as +though his thoughts were not pleasant ones, and he did not work in his +usual brisk way. + +When Mr. Marvin went away, his thoughts came out. + +"No wonder," he said, "that Harry Porter is always praised up so. He +has some chance in the world. His father is rich; he has a new book +every time he turns around; his father never goes away but he brings +him one; then he goes travelling. He has been out West and been to +Boston and New York. He has been on the top of Pike's Peak, and he has +seen Bunker Hill monument and the obelisk. Why shouldn't he know more +than any of the rest of us? He has lots of time besides, to study, and +have fun, too. Out of school he needn't do anything but trot about on +that pony. What's the use of a fellow like me trying to make anything +of himself?" + +It was not such a very long time ago that Kent Stevens had been a boy +himself, even if he was now a young lawyer in the city. He came every +summer to the old home for a play spell, he called it, and then he +proved that he had not forgotten how to rake hay and pick apples. He +had not forgotten, either, how a boy feels, so he was excellent company +for Frank. He placed the last apple in a closely packed barrel, then he +turned and looked curiously at his brother. + +"Why, Frank! What has got into you to-day?" he said. "You don't seem +one bit like our bright cheery boy. Do you think you are one of the +fellows who has no chance? Let us sit down in this sunny spot and rest +ourselves, and count up some of your chances.—A good home, a splendid +father and mother—to say nothing of a very wise brother—a few good +books, a weekly newspaper, a church and Sabbath-school, an excellent, +day-school, good eyes and ears and stomach, a pair of legs that can run +like a squirrel, two strong arms, and a very good mind, and here you +talk of not having 'chances!' + +"How do yours look when you cast your eye at little Tim Morey with a +drunken father and a shanty for a home, or at Johnny Wilson, who is +almost blind, or poor Will Smith who must go for the rest of his life +on crutches and suffer much pain? Or compare your lot with the boys who +work in the factory, who must go to their work at seven in the morning +and stay until seven in the evening, day after day, year after year. +What about their chances? Don't you know, dear boy, that as a rule, it +is not boys with rich fathers who turn out to be the greatest men? + +"Look at me," he said, straightening himself up and marching about with +mock pompousness. "Haven't I put the sweat of my brow and my muscle +into this old farm? Didn't I get out of my bed at cock-crowing and go +after the cows in wet grass up to my knees? + +"Haven't I milked and ploughed and planted corn and hoed it and husked +it? And yet, I got through and had no more hard work than was good for +me, I believe now, though I used to grumble sometimes just as you are +doing now. + +"I tell you, my boy, it is not in having this or that, or going here +and there, that makes a success, but it is improving, to the very +utmost, the advantages one has, though they be not the best. + +"There is another secret too. One must be in dead earnest; must have an +aim and stick to it in spite of anything, and the greatest secret of +all is, that aim must not be alone to be a rich man or a learned man, +but it must be this—'to make the very most of one's self for Christ's +sake.' And you can't begin too young; the younger the better. + +"I heard something about two men the other day, that is just in point +here—but perhaps you are tired of my preaching and want to go in." + +"Oh no, tell it," said Frank. "You know I would rather have you preach +to me than anybody else." + +"Well, a good many years ago two boys lived in the same town and went +to the same school. They both had pretty good advantages and were +naturally bright and clear-headed. All the difference between them +was, that from the time they were very little fellows, John was always +laying plans to have a 'good time.' + +"Will loved fun as well as he did, but in both fun and work, his chief +aim was to be right and true. + +"As they grew up to be young men, Will held fast to the choice he had +made when a little boy. + +"The Lord Jesus Christ was his master. + +"John had an entirely different master; he shirked his lessons, and +wasted his time and money in what he called 'fun.' + +"When school days were over, one of them had a fine start in his +education, but poor John was almost a dunce, it was surprising how +little he knew thoroughly. + +"When Will went into business, he made a resolution in the very +beginning to give a certain part of his money to the Lord's work, +whether he made much or little. He was prospered, and he grew to be +a rich, strong man, foremost in every good work; everybody loved and +honored him. He was a grand temperance worker, and he gave great sums +to the poor and helped educate many young men for the ministry. The +more he gave away the richer he grew, but he kept giving, and for some +time before his death it is said that he gave away a thousand dollars a +day! + +"Will was William E. Dodge who died a few weeks ago in the city. You +remember the papers were filled with accounts of him. Nobody could say +a word against him, and the whole city was in mourning. + +"It is strange that as the boys came into the world about the same +time, they left it within a few days of each other. But oh! so +differently. There were no weeping friends at John's funeral. Nobody +said over his coffin, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.' Not +one cried, 'How shall his place be filled.' + +"John had become a miserable sot. Nearly all his old friends had +lost sight of him. He lived without God, and so he died without +him, miserable and alone, and he was carried to his grave from the +almshouse—just a rough pine box in a cart—and that was the last of +John, for this life. + +"Don't you see, Frank, that under God's blessing, every boy has it in +his own power to choose whether his life shall be lived and ended like +John's or like William E. Dodge's?" + +"It was a good sermon, Kent," Frank said soberly, as they walked up to +the house. "It helps me; I'll not forget." + + + + THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY. + +HOW often Grace and Nellie had heard these words. + +"I'm sick to death of them," said Nellie. "I am going to try to have +the most fun I can to-morrow, and I'll risk but what I'll be happy +enough." + +"And I am going to try grandma's way of having fun to-morrow. Just for +a change, I am going to do everything 'exactly right.' She seems so +sure that that way is the best. Do you suppose there are any good plays +or jolly times for little girls who always do every thing 'perfectly +right?'" + +"Why, no, Gracie! You know that if you are going to be very good +to-morrow, you ought to sew on papa's handkerchief, so as to finish it +for his birthday present. I can't finish mine, for I've planned to go +sailing on Tom's raft on the duck pond. I shall take all my dolls, land +on the little island, and pull of my shoes and stockings, and play I +am Robinson Crusoe, and the ducks will be the savages, and when they +come swimming towards me, I shall hide in the bushes, or else jump on +the raft and push out to sea. You had better come too, and be my man +Friday." + +"But, Nellie, you know mamma said for us not to play on the duck pond, +for we always wet our feet." + +"Yes; but I shall wear rubbers this time, and it was last week she said +that; she did not say we should not play there to-morrow." + +"Well! You must play there alone, for I am going to try grandma's way +of being happy for one whole day, and if I don't like it, next day I +will play on the duck pond." + +These two little girls were twin sisters, eight years old. They were +pretty, bright, and full of fun, and now they were going to have a +week's vacation; a whole week without study, and they had planned plays +enough to last most little girls three weeks. + +But last night grandma had told them a long and interesting story about +a boy who always did just as he pleased in every thing. He was selfish +and disobedient, but he was never happy. At last he was so unhappy and +miserable, that he made up his mind to give up his naughty ways and to +be a good boy, and behold, everything was changed. + +"So you see, my dears, as I have often told you, in order to be happy, +you must be good." + +[Illustration: NELLIE LEFT AT HOME.] + +"I am sick of that sort of stories," said Nellie. + +"I am going to try for one day to see if I can be happy by being good," +said Gracie thoughtfully. + + +The next morning dawned bright and warm. + +"Such a lovely day for my play," said Nellie, as she tucked a big piece +of cake in her pocket, and with her arms full of dollies, went dancing +off across the fields to the pond. + +"That child can't be going to the pond, after all I said the other +day," said mamma, glancing anxiously after Nellie. + +"Oh no!" said grandma. "She is probably going to play in the grove by +the side of it." + +"And so my little Grace is going to finish her present for papa's +birthday," said mamma with a pleased look at the little girl, who was +stitching away in the window. + +"I feel a little bit happy now," thought Gracie, as she saw her +mother's smiling face. But it was a long hour, and the little fingers +felt very lame before the handkerchief was done, but at last the last +stitch was taken, and it was carefully folded and a card marked, "Papa +from Gracie," pinned on it, all ready to put by his plate to-morrow +morning at breakfast. + +"Children, do you want to go with me to spend the day at aunt Mary's?" +calls papa, from the doorway. "Just put on your hats; the horse is +harnessed, and I am waiting. Where is Nellie?" + +At that moment Nellie came in at the door, wet and dirty, with the +blood dropping from a cut on her forehead, and crying bitterly. + +"Oh, my poor little girl, where have you been?" said mamma, as she +wiped the blood from her face. + +"I was Robinson Crusoe," sobbed Nellie, "and the cake was my +provisions, and when the savages saw my cake they came swimming and +flying all on to my raft; then I tried to push them off, and I tumbled +right into the water and mud, and they got my cake; and my dollies are +drowned." + +"So you went to the duck pond to play; you knew better than that," said +mamma sternly. + +"If she has disobeyed you, she must stay at home," said papa. "Come, +Gracie!" + +In a moment they were driving along the beautiful shady road that led +to aunt Mary's. At first, Gracie felt too sorry for Nellie to be very +happy. But her father, noticing her sad face, told her that if Nellie +was a good girl, he would take her next week, and then he told so many +funny stories about himself when he was a little boy, that it was not +long before she was laughing merrily. + +What a welcome they had at aunt Mary's. + +"We knew you were coming to-day," said Katie, who was Gracie's cousin, +"and we are freezing ice-cream down cellar." + +Then they took their dolls and played happily together all day long. +When Gracie was riding home she told her father that she had never had +such a happy day before in her life. + +"Oh, such a lovely time as I have had!" she exclaimed, as she bounded +into the house. + +Grandma was rocking Nellie in her arms, and was just finishing her +evening story. + +"And so you see, my dear, that just as soon as Jacob made up his mind +to be a good boy, all his troubles ended. Everybody loved him, and he +was very happy and good." + +"I like your kind of stories to-night, grandma," said Nellie softly, in +the old lady's ear, "and I am going to be good to be happy all the rest +of the week." + +"Say all the rest of your life, my dear," whispered back grandma. + + + + THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY. + +YOU'VE never seen a palace? Why, my dears, you have seen a great many. +Sit round me here, and I will tell you about one, the ruins of which +you saw this morning. In some respects it was quite remarkable; not +much like the one Queen Victoria lives in. + +This palace had six walls, and only one room. There were three inner +walls, and three outer ones, and wherever two inner walls met, an outer +wall covered the place. The people who dwelt in the palace called the +walls the "Perianth." Each of the inner walls were called a "petal," +and each of the outer ones a "sepal." They were covered outside and +inside with snowy white silk, filled with the most delicious perfume. +There were no windows, for each wall tapered to a point at, the upper +end, and drooped over the outside of the palace, leaving it, open to +the light and the pure air. + +A house of so delicate a fabric could not rest on the ground without +being soiled by the dust and dirt of the earth, so it was held far +aloft on a slender, green column. It did not stand upright like Queen +Victoria's palace, but it leaned over toward the ground, so that when +the rain came down, none should remain in the palace and drown the +people. They would have fallen out, too, had they not been made as fast +to the floor as were the walls of the palace. + +That seems dreadful to you little people who take such delight in +running about on your little feet. But they were very well contented to +remain where they were and only look out upon the world, for they would +have died had they left their beautiful home. + +The throne covered nearly all the floor of the palace; and the king +stood on the centre of it. His head reached far above the walls, for he +was very tall, and very straight and slender. He wore a robe of pale +green, and on his head was an emerald insignia, more like a helmet than +a crown. It was divided into three parts. One part drooped over and +rested against the back of his head, one part against the right side, +and one against the left. + +There stood around the throne six tall men dressed in white, bearing +salvers of gold-dust on their heads. They called the salvers "anthers," +and the gold-dust "pollen," but it was not like the gold-dust you saw +at the jeweler's. + +I want you to notice how the number three figured in nearly everything. +It was a sacred number with them. There were three inner walls, and +three outer ones. Six (two threes) tall men, and the king's crown was +divided into three parts. + +A strange thing about the tall men was that one could not be +distinguished from another, so near alike were they, and they were each +named "Stamen." Although they were very tall, they were not so tall as +their king. They were very faithful servants, looking always up to him +to know his commands. + +When the wind blew a little, they bowed down before King Pistil, and +the salvers swung back and forth, causing tiny clouds of gold-dust to +rise and fall upon him. Then he was glad, and bowed to them, that they +might see that he was pleased with them. For he only required them to +sprinkle a little gold-dust upon him, then he made it into pieces of +money and packed them away into three large boxes under his throne. + +But sometimes this frail palace was at the mercy of the great winds. It +swayed to and fro before them, tossing the tall men about so they could +not prevent some of the gold-dust falling on the walls. + +Then King Pistil trembled with grief at seeing the gold-dust being +wasted, and the tall men leaned toward him trying to comfort him. + +Then the rain came, and fell into the palace, and washed it clean, and +bathed the king and his servants; and when the sun shone again, they +sparkled all over with diamonds. + +But some strange people passing by stopped to admire them, and to +inhale their sweet fragrance; and one of the palaces with all its +inmates was carried away by them. Then there was mourning, for they +knew it was certain death to any of them if their palace was taken from +the column on which it rested. + +King Pistil's money increased until the boxes could hold no more; and +the throne began to creak as though it would fall apart. The walls of +the palace were falling away too. The tall men looked old and feeble; +and the king felt himself growing weak and infirm, and he knew that +he soon must die. So he unlocked his money boxes, that after he was +gone, they might open, and the money be scattered far and near, and +other palaces spring up, and other kings live, as he had lived, giving +pleasure to all who came near. + +Very soon after, the king and his servants died, the boxes burst open +showing them well filled with money. Some of it fell on the ground +under the palace, that another might spring up there in memory of King +Pistil; and some of it was carried a long distance by the wind before +it was dropped on the ground. + +Now, my dears, let us go into the garden, and look at the white lilies, +and see if my story of their king and his palace is correct. Tell +me, if you can, how his money differed from ours. Why it had to be +scattered on the ground, and what it was called by King Pistil. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75953 *** diff --git a/75953-h/75953-h.htm b/75953-h/75953-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc56616 --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/75953-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2040 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + A Day in the Country and Other Stories, by Pansy Alden │ Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/image001.jpg" type="image/cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size:12.0pt; + font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; +} + +p {text-indent: 2em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} + +.w100 { + width: auto + } + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 125%; + text-align: center + } + +p.t2 { + text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center + } + +p.t3 { + text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center + } + +p.t3b { + text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center + } + +p.t4 { + text-indent: 0%; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center + } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.poem { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + padding: 20px 0; + text-align: left; + width: 555px; + } + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75953 ***</div> + +<p>Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.</p> + +<p>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the +public domain.</p> +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image001" style="max-width: 33.8125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image001.jpg" alt="image001"> +</figure> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image002" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image002.jpg" alt="image002"> +</figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>NANNIE.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h1>A DAY IN THE COUNTRY</h1> + +<p class="t1"> +<br> +<b>AND OTHER STORIES</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> +FROM<br> +</p> + +<p class="t1"> +"THE PANSY"<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image003" style="max-width: 25.8125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image003.jpg" alt="image003"> +</figure> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> +BOSTON<br> +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY<br> +</p> + +<p class="t4"> +FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> +Copyright by<br> +<br> +D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY<br> +<br> +1885<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +CONTENTS.<br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p><a href="#St_1">A DAY IN THE COUNTRY.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_2">WHY MADGE CHANGED HER MIND.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_3">NANNIE'S LESSON.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_4">FOOLISH CHILDREN.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_5">SOME CURIOUS FISHES.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_6">TIME ENOUGH.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_7">A CUP OF COLD WATER.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_8">ON NANTUCKET WHARF.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_9">LILY DAY.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_10">THE GREENLANDER.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_11">SOME YOUNG HEROES.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_12">THE SECRET OF IT.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_13">THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#St_14">THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY.</a></p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t2"> +<b><em>A DAY IN THE COUNTRY</em></b><br> +</p> + +<p class="t1"> +<br> +<b><em>AND OTHER STORIES</em></b><br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_1">A DAY IN THE COUNTRY.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>THEY were on their way to Sabbath-school that pleasant September +morning. Maggie and Lottie Barnes, Delia and Sallie Shaw. They lived in +the city of Boston.</p> + +<p>Because they lived in a large city, do not go and make a picture in +your mind of four little ladies with new fall suits of silk or velvet, +or soft cashmere, and new hats with nodding plumes or flying ribbons, +and trim boots, very high, and trim gloves very long, and many buttons +everywhere, because that will not be at all a true picture.</p> + +<p>Their dresses were all faded and worn. Maggie wore an old black shawl +of her mother's, that trailed a little on the ground. Delia considered +herself royally arrayed in a rusty old black velvet sack much too large +for her, while Lottie had no protection front the cool autumn air but a +soiled and faded blue silk handkerchief spread over her shoulders, her +hat, in spite of being loaded down with purple ribbon and red roses, +went sailing off her head with every gust of wind that came along, +because it had no rubber on it. Then poor Sallie had on low shoes much +too large for her. They would keep getting down at the heel and coming +off as she clattered along, and she had often to stoop over and adjust +them. With these hindrances of hat and shoes of course they could not, +you see, go on in a very orderly manner.</p> + +<p>They were discussing something in very loud tones. Nobody had ever told +them it was rude to talk loud in the streets.</p> + +<p>They were bemoaning the fact that all the girls they knew except +themselves, had been to the country to spend a few days.</p> + +<p>"I wanted to go so much," little Sallie said, tugging at her shoe as +she spoke; "I wanted to see some flowers growing. I should think we +might have gone as well as the rest," said Delia. "I think it's mean to +skip us."</p> + +<p>"The money give out," said Lottie, clutching at her hat to prevent its +escape.</p> + +<p>"Money is the matter with most everything," Maggie said, drawing her +shawl closer about her with a grown-up air, and a grown-up sigh.</p> + +<p>The money of which the children talked was "The Fresh Air Fund," a sum +of money that good men and women raised to give poor children who live +in the great city a chance to go into the country for a few days, and +breathe the sweet air, run on the grass, pick flowers, and drink fresh +milk, all about which they knew nothing. This Mission School was very +large, but nearly all had been to the country; some for two whole weeks.</p> + +<p>By some means these little girls had been overlooked.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eastman, their teacher, had been absent from her class for six +weeks, and all were glad to see her pleasant face in the teacher's +chair this morning.</p> + +<p>"Now I suppose you must first tell me what a fine time you had in the +country," she said "but as our class is so large, we shall not be able +to hear a story from each one. Let all who had a good time in the +country raise their hands."</p> + +<p>The hands went up instantly—all except four.</p> + +<p>They sat together, so Mrs. Eastman had no trouble in seeing their hands +were not raised, and that they did not wear the bright look of the +other children.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter here?" she asked kindly. "No hands up this end of +the class? Maggie, Lottie, how is it? Did you not like the country?"</p> + +<p>"We never went to no country," the little girls responded in a chorus.</p> + +<p>After Mrs. Eastman had inquired all about it, and heard how much they +wished to go, and said how sorry she was that it had happened so, she +wrote down very carefully their names, and just where they lived.</p> + +<p>Then she asked them if they had ever told Jesus about it.</p> + +<p>"No, we never did," they said.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear little girls," she said, "don't you know when you have +trouble, there is where you must take it? You must tell Jesus to-night +how much you want to go to the country, and ask him to send you. You +know it would not be a good thing for you to go for a long visit, now +that your schools have opened, but if you could go for one day, would +you not like it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, yes!" they all answered again.</p> + +<p>"Well you ask him, and then wait and see what he will do."</p> + +<p>It was almost as good as going to the country to have such loving eyes +look into theirs, and say, "My dear little girls!" They all promised to +do as she wished them to.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how it'll be done," Maggie said, on the way home, "when +the money is all gone; but teacher said Jesus could do hard things."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Monday was a long day, because these little girls were expecting +something to happen. For had not teacher said, "Ask Jesus, and see what +he will do for you?"</p> + +<p>Sun enough, great news was waiting them when they got home. Maggie and +Lottie came running over to Mrs. Shaw's all out of breath.</p> + +<p>"Look at that!" said Maggie, holding out a note written on rose tinted +paper, in letters almost as plain as print.</p> + +<p>"Look at that!" said Sallie, holding up the mate to it.</p> + +<p>"Teacher's been to our house," said Maggie.</p> + +<p>"And teacher's been to our house!" Sallie responded triumphantly.</p> + +<p>These notes from "Teacher" were invitations for the little girls to +spend the day with her at her country home on Saturday. They were +to take the seven o'clock train at the Old Colony station, and ride +about fifteen miles, and there Mrs. Eastman would be waiting with her +carriage.</p> + +<p>Think of that! A carriage waiting for them!</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>The day came at last. Great had been the preparations all the week; +each Sunday dress had been made as nice as washing, ironing and mending +could make it. And they were all at the-depot by half-past six, in a +high state of excitement.</p> + +<p>The day was perfect. They enjoyed every minute of the ride in the cars. +The conductor had orders to leave them at a certain station. No sooner +had they stepped from the cars, than they saw the smiling face of their +teacher. They were soon seated in a handsome carriage and rolling +over a smooth road. The air was sweet and pure, the birds sang, the +squirrels skipped about in the trees, and the golden October sunshine +made the world beautiful that morning.</p> + +<p>"So you told Jesus about it, did you?" Mrs. Eastman asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes'm, we did," said little Sallie. "We told him Sunday night, and he +'tended to it the first thing Monday morning."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image004" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image004.jpg" alt="image004"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>MAKING WREATHS FOR THEIR HATS.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_2">WHY MADGE CHANGED HER MIND.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>GRANDMA'S room was the very handsomest one in the house. Madge and +Nellie thought it was the pleasantest at least.</p> + +<p>A bay window overlooked the street, where busy people came and went; +two other large windows, that were doors as well, opened on to a +piazza, and that piazza was a delightfully cool place to sit, on warm +days.</p> + +<p>Grandma's large chair was out there most of the time in summer. Then +she had to take but a few steps and she was in the flower garden. In +winter the plants were in the conservatory, of course, and a glass door +from grandma's room opened into that too.</p> + +<p>Between her pretty bedroom and the large room were folding doors. There +were soft carpets and lace curtains, pictures, great easy-chairs, and +everything for use and comfort and prettiness that could be thought of, +for everybody in the house thought nothing was too fine and nice for +grandma, and that was just as it should be.</p> + +<p>It was a bright September morning, but cool enough for grandma to have +a fire snapping on her brass andirons in the fireplace.</p> + +<p>Some people dread to grow old, because they are so foolish as to think +that young folks have all the good looks; but that is a great mistake. +Grandma made just as pretty a picture in her black dress, white cap, +and soft mull handkerchief folded about her neck, with her red knitting +work in her lap, and the fire shining on her silver hair, as Madge and +Nellie did over in the window in blue dresses, though their heads were +brown and curly, and their cheeks round, and smooth, and rosy.</p> + +<p>They were busy with pencil and paper, making out a list of little girls +who were to be invited to their birthday party.</p> + +<p>It happened that both birthdays came in September, and so they could be +celebrated together.</p> + +<p>"Shall we invite Minnie Dale?" asked Nellie.</p> + +<p>"No; of course not," Madge answered with a curl of her pretty lip.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" said Nellie. "She's the best girl in school, and she's +pretty too."</p> + +<p>"Well, it won't do," Madge declared, with the air and tone of a much +older young lady than ten. "She doesn't belong."</p> + +<p>"Belong to what? She belongs to our day-school and our Sunday-school."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a little stupid you are," laughed Madge. "She doesn't belong +to our set, of course. Do you know where she lives? She lives in that +little bit of a brown house way down on Cedar street, just about as big +as our smoke house."</p> + +<p>"Does she?" said her sister. "Why, I thought she was as good as any +of us. She always wears pretty dresses, and she acts—well, sort o' +stylish."</p> + +<p>"You mustn't say sort o'," said Madge. "You mean she has pretty +manners; that's what they call it. Oh, yes; she's nice enough, but what +do you suppose Elsie Melbourne, and Clara Haines, and Lina Vedder would +say to meeting a girl here who lives in such a hut as that, no matter +how she looks and acts?"</p> + +<p>"Sure enough!" Nellie answered. "It would not do, would it?"</p> + +<p>Grandma arose just then and went to the bureau. She brought out a small +rosewood box, and sitting down again by the fire, unlocked it. This +drew the children's attention. They always liked to get a peep into +grandma's treasures. She had so many curious and pretty things, and +told such nice stories about them. So they came over to her, and this +was just what she wished them to do.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to see my old home?" Grandma said as she brought out a +drawing and handed it to them.</p> + +<p>"Why, grandma, what do you mean?" they both said at once.</p> + +<p>"Why, this is a log house!" Madge said.</p> + +<p>"And it's such a little bit of a house!" said Nellie.</p> + +<p>"Now, grandma, you truly didn't ever live there?"</p> + +<p>"I truly did!" grandma answered. "And a prettier home, or a happier one +you never saw.</p> + +<p>"When I was married, I went with your grandfather to live in this +little house. It stood among the trees, and there was a brook not far +away that went racketing over the stones. We used to take long walks in +summer, after tea; in summer evenings following up that little brook. +Sometimes it ran through green meadows, and then it wound and twisted +itself around the hills and on into the dark, cool woods. There were +moss-covered stones in it, and ferns and violets grew on its banks: +such a pretty place as you never saw, my dears!"</p> + +<p>"But how could you live in such a very little house?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Plenty of room," said grandma. "You wouldn't believe it to look +at it, but in that house we had a parlor, bedroom, dining-room and +kitchen. When we bought it, it had but one large room with a shed at +the back. So we set to work to make a nice place of it.</p> + +<p>"First of all your grandfather made the old shed into the neatest +little kitchen with a corner cupboard. He whitewashed it and set up our +stove, and I put our new dishes in the cupboard, and it was as pretty +as a little girl's playhouse. The large room was a bare rough place, +but we made it white and pure with lime, and I made a curtain out of +some pretty chintz calico, and pat it across one side of the room, and +that was my bedroom; you see your grandma invented curtains between +rooms, which are now so fashionable, long ago. Well, when we had our +carpet down, and our pictures up, our books on the shelf, and our round +table with a sage-green cloth over it, a bright fire snapping in the +great old fireplace, an old armchair one side of the fire and my sewing +rocker on the other, I say, there was no neater, prettier place in the +whole world."</p> + +<p>"But grandma, where were your parlor and dining-room?"</p> + +<p>"My child, the parlor and dining-room were all in one. The end of the +room next the kitchen was the dining-room: when meal time came it was +a dining-room, and when meals were over we just cleared off the table, +turned down the leaves, set it back against the wall and put a spread +on it, and the room was a parlor again; don't you see?"</p> + +<p>"Were you just as happy as you are in this handsome house?" asked +Madge, casting her eyes over the beautiful room.</p> + +<p>"Some of the happiest years of my life were spent in this dear humble +home," grandma said as she replaced the picture in the box with a last +loving look at it.</p> + +<p>"Just think," said wise Nellie, looking thoughtfully into the fire, "if +grandma was a little girl now she couldn't come to our party because +she lived in a log house."</p> + +<p>"There is somebody greater than grandma you would shut out if He were +here," grandma said; "the Lord Jesus himself had no fine house. He said +the foxes and the birds had houses, but he had none."</p> + +<p>They went back to their work of making out a list.</p> + +<p>"Madge," Nellie said pretty soon, "I guess Jesus won't be pleased +with such a party as we are getting up. If you don't care, I mean to +ask mamma to let me have my party by myself some day, and I'll invite +Minnie Dale and that lame girl, and that Jessie Moore in our class that +wears calico dresses."</p> + +<p>"Nellie Bryant," said Madge, "don't you suppose I want to please Jesus +too, instead of Elsie Melbourne, or Clara Vedder, or any of them? I +never thought how it would seem to him; we'll ask Minnie Dale and +everybody else mamma thinks best. If grandma lived in a poor little +house once, who knows but Minnie Dale will live in a grander house than +any of us some day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and just think," Nellie answered, "if papa should lose his money +like Mr. Strong, and we have to go into a little bit of a house, +wouldn't it seem dreadful to have the girls leave us out when they made +parties, and we would be the very same girls we always were, too?"</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_3">NANNIE'S LESSON.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>LITTLE Nannie Greyson was sitting on her front piazza one bright June +morning, when everything around was fresh and bright, but Nannie +herself was blind to all this beauty by which she was surrounded, for +she had just received a new book, and was already deep in its pages.</p> + +<p>Nannie was a very pretty little girl about nine years old. She had +a fair skin, large blue eyes and golden hair, not long, but falling +to her neck in short, pretty curls. Any one looking at her that June +morning would immediately pronounce her very nice and lovable indeed.</p> + +<p>The front door behind her is standing open, and presently a lady comes +through the wide hall, and stands behind the little girl. She looks +down at her without speaking, and the little girl finally becoming +aware of her presence looks up into her face with a smile which makes +her if anything, more sweet and lovable.</p> + +<p>"O! Mamma," she exclaims, "my book is so nice."</p> + +<p>And drawing a deep sigh of satisfaction she prepares to return to it. +But her mamma is speaking, and she stops to listen, although very +reluctantly, I am sorry to say.</p> + +<p>"Nannie," her mamma says, "I want you to come and amuse Herbie while I +am busy in the kitchen."</p> + +<p>Herbie was Nannie's two-year-old brother, and a lively little fellow to +take care of.</p> + +<p>Minnie threw down her book, and when she looked up, you would scarcely +have recognized her as the same sweet little girl who looked so happy a +few moments before. An angry frown had settled on the smooth forehead +over the blue eyes; there was a fretful expression on her lips, and +she was entirely transformed from the bright, pretty little girl whose +mouth had been all smiles, to a peevish child with a pout on her lips +which was not at all becoming.</p> + +<p>"O, mamma, must I leave my book to take care of that tiresome baby? It +seems to me I never sit down to read but you want me to do something +for you."</p> + +<p>She knew she must go, though, and she got up slowly, going through the +hall, up the staircase, and into the nursery at the head of the stairs, +pouting and cross. She knew that her mamma was deeply grieved, and she +knew also that she never would have called her from her book had it not +been necessary.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image005" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image005.jpg" alt="image005"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>HERBIE.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>But still she pouted, while Herbie tried in his baby fashion to comfort +her, for he saw something was wrong. She could not resist his baby +coaxing very long, and her ill-humor soon vanished, and they had a +merry game of romps.</p> + +<p>Two or three hours afterward while playing with a little friend on +the back piazza, she tore a bad hole in her dress. Running up-stairs +to find mamma, she found her after a little search in the nursery +seated by the window, in her rocking-chair with a book in her hand, a +very unusual thing for Nannie's mamma, and Herbie at her feet, busily +engaged with his toys. Nannie hastened up to her, saying:</p> + +<p>"O, mamma, just see what I have done; won't you please mend it 'quick.'"</p> + +<p>Her mamma, instead of looking up with her bright smile and ready +consent, threw down her book impatiently, exclaiming, as she did so:</p> + +<p>"Oh dear, Nannie, must I leave my nice book just to mend that tear? It +seems to me I never sit down to read, but you want me to do something +for you."</p> + +<p>Nannie's eyes filled with tears, for she recognized her own words, and +knew that mamma meant to rebuke her in this way. She raised her eyes to +her mamma's face, as if asking for pardon, and as her mamma stretched +out her arms, she sprang into them, sobbing her confession there.</p> + +<p>Nannie had learned a lesson, and one that she never forgot.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_4">FOOLISH CHILDREN.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>MRS. TOPKNOT is having trouble in her family to-night. Two weeks ago +she was very happy when twelve soft, downy darlings gathered under her +wings.</p> + +<p>She is not so happy now, because some of them have been naughty.</p> + +<p>It was just after dinner, when mamma Topknot was taking a nap, that +they took it into their heads.</p> + +<p>Whitey began it. She was a proud little thing, all white, with not a +black feather about her. She thought she was the prettiest and smartest +of the whole brood.</p> + +<p>"Our feathers are all out now," Whitey said. "We're growing up. Let's +take a little walk by ourselves."</p> + +<p>"That's so," said Blackey, "we'll do just that thing. Come on, right +off, while mother's asleep; we'll get back before ever she wakes."</p> + +<p>"Won't it be fun?" whispered Speckle. "Come on, all of you, and don't +make a bit of noise."</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to stir a single step," little Dove declared. "I'm going +to stay close by my mother."</p> + +<p>Then every little chick looked up in astonishment, to think that gentle +little Dovie would dare to speak her mind so plainly.</p> + +<p>"She's afraid!" said Spot. "She's afraid a big grasshopper will carry +her off."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid to disobey my mother," Dovie chirped out sweetly. "She +said we were never to go anywhere without her till she gave us leave."</p> + +<p>"Come on, right off, everybody who wants to go," said Blackey, marching +off, calling out as he looked behind him:</p> + +<p>"I know where there are some big strawberries!"</p> + +<p>"I know where there's a great black dog," piped little Gray. "I'm not +going."</p> + +<p>"Nor I," said Brownie.</p> + +<p>So away went the naughty nine chickens, and the three little good ones +stayed at home.</p> + +<p>They had a splendid time, for Bobby brought his apron full of chickweed +and threw it on the barn floor. They could get little bits of it, even +with their small bills.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image006" style="max-width: 30.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image006.jpg" alt="image006"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>MAMMA TOPKNOT AND HER FAMILY.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>When mamma Topknot awoke, she looked about for her children.</p> + +<p>Only three to be found! Where could the others be? She looked all about +and called, but they did not come. Supper time came, and still they had +not arrived.</p> + +<p>"Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!" went mother Topknot about the barnyard, as if +she would go wild.</p> + +<p>Where could they be? If she could only squeeze herself through the hole +under the fence by which they got out, she would go in search of them.</p> + +<p>The supper was nearly all eaten up by the other old hens before she +knew what they were about. She managed to save only enough for the +three little chicks who had stayed at home.</p> + +<p>Just as it began to grow dark, when their mother had given them up, and +had settled down with a sad heart to take care of what children she had +left, they came.</p> + +<p>They hopped through the fence one after another, till they all stood +before her, a guilty little huddle.</p> + +<p>Just a minute before, mamma Topknot had thought she would give all her +feathers if she could only see them alive once more, and now just as +soon as she had them, she fell to scolding them.</p> + +<p>Oh, how she scolded! And such a hubbub as there was. Speckle stood off +by herself and actually talked back. Two or three of the others tried +to tell how it wasn't their fault, they never would have thought of +such a thing. Then they all talked at once and told how hungry they +were and said they never would run away again.</p> + +<p>Gray and Brownie stuck their heads from under their mother's feathers +to see how things were going, while little Dove got up on her mother's +back and tried to help scold.</p> + +<p>Blackey scud around behind his mother as soon as he came in and poked +his head up under her wing as if he thought he could make her believe +he never had been away.</p> + +<p>After they had all cried and said they were sorry, mother Topknot began +to pity them, they looked so cold and tired, and so she forgave them +and cuddled them all under her wings once more.</p> + +<p>Of course they had to go to bed without any supper, but that taught +them a good lesson. They never did run away again.</p> + +<p>That was not the only reason, though—the going without their supper. +They had a fearful time. They told about it next day.</p> + +<p>The great black dog chased them, a cat almost got one of them, and a +boy threw stones at them.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_5">SOME CURIOUS FISHES.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>I DON'T suppose you think there are any fishes that can either walk or +live any time out of water. Yet there are.</p> + +<p>The gurnard is one of the most important of the walking fish. M. +Deslongchamp had an artificial fish-pond on the shores of Normandy, in +which several of these creatures were. When he waded in the pond, he +could easily see all their movements.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, when he was watching them in this way, he saw them +close their fins against their sides, and walk along the ground by +means of six slender legs, three on each pectoral fin. By these they +can walk very fast.</p> + +<p>The square-browed malthe can also walk, and can live out of water. +Sometimes it spends two or three days creeping over the land. The +reason that all fishes cannot stay out of water is because they are so +made that they have to breathe air through water. All fishes are this +way, but some can carry water in their gills both for breathing and +drinking purposes for several days.</p> + +<p>The grouper fish is very queer in that it will swallow such curious +things, which you would not think it could possibly digest. One was +caught on the coast of Queensland which, when opened, was found to have +in its stomach two broken bottles, a quart pot, a preserved milk-tin, +seven crabs, a piece of earthenware encrusted with oyster shells, a +sheep's head, some mutton and beef bones, and some oyster shells.</p> + +<p>There is a crab in the Keeling Islands, that lives on the land all day, +returning to the water only at night to moisten its gills. It also eats +cocoanuts, opening the shell with its huge claws, and the natives of +the islands say that it climbs the trees to get them. This, however, is +not known.</p> + +<p>Thus we see that there are some very curious fishes; yet none of them +have mind, and are not to be compared with man. Let us be thankful, +then, that God made us human beings, and not fishes.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_6">TIME ENOUGH.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>ELMER'S new suit had just come home.</p> + +<p>It was brown, with dashes of green in it. It fitted him exactly, and +everybody knows it makes one feel good-natured when his new clothes fit +well. When he tried them on, nobody jerked his pantaloons down, said +they were too short, nor twitched his jacket up and said it was too low +in the neck.</p> + +<p>He laid them carefully over the back of a chair that night before he +went to bed, then got out a clean collar and a green necktie, tucked a +handkerchief into the side pocket of the jacket, and surveyed them all +with a satisfied look.</p> + +<p>Morning came, bright and splendid as anybody could wish. The steamboat +with flying flags stood at the wharf, and a happy company of boys and +girls, dressed in white and pink and red and blue, marched through the +streets to the sound of music.</p> + +<p>The procession passed through the great gates and were all comfortably +settled on the boat fifteen minutes before it was time to start.</p> + +<p>Elmer's home was a long walk from the church where the other scholars +met, so he went directly to the steamboat landing.</p> + +<p>He had just bought a new set of marbles. They were beauties, and when +he met Will Porter, he could not resist the temptation to try his +new marbles on the broad, smooth paving-stones just above the gates +where no people were passing at this early hour. The game became so +fascinating, that the boys played on, even after the procession had +gone on board.</p> + +<p>"Come on," Will said; "we'll be late."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! We won't be late. The boat will not start this quarter of an +hour," Elmer answered, aiming a great blue marble at a red one.</p> + +<p>Now the superintendent and the teachers had warned the school many +times, "The gates will be closed at seven o'clock. If you are not on +the other side of them by that time, you cannot go."</p> + +<p>"Be prompt, boys and girls," Mr. Willard had said as he dismissed +the Sabbath-school. "Do not come hurrying along at the last minute. +Our trip next Wednesday is one of our lessons, and it will teach +punctuality in rather a severe manner if one of you stands sorrowfully +peeping through that big gate at us, while we glide off down the river. +It will certainly spoil your pleasure and ours too if you are too late."</p> + +<p>Not a boy who heard him thought that talk was meant for him. "'I' shall +be in time," they told themselves; "of course I shall."</p> + +<p>Elmer and Will had each a great fault. Elmer's was procrastination. He +was always saying, "Wait a minute," "There's plenty of time," or "I'll +do it by and by." Because of this habit, he was never known to be in +time anywhere. His father had given him a watch at Christmas to see if +that would not help him to improve, but it did not; he went on saying, +"Time enough." Everybody had to wait for him.</p> + +<p>When the rest of the family were ready for church, he would rush +through the house like a hurricane, pulling and panting, up-stairs and +down, calling out:</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear! Can't somebody help me? Won't Mary black my boots? Do come +and fix on my collar! Has anybody seen my lesson paper?"</p> + +<p>And so the whole house would run here and there, waiting upon one who +had dawdled away the whole morning.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image007" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image007.jpg" alt="image007"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>THE BOAT STEAMED DOWN THE RIVER.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Will's fault was different. He had no mind of his own. He was always +ruled by the person he happened to be with, and never could say "No" to +anybody, no matter what his judgment or his conscience told him.</p> + +<p>He was uneasy now, and thought they ought to go that minute, but he +played on, though he did say: "It's time to go, I know it is; the gates +will be shut."</p> + +<p>"No, they won't be shut either," Elmer said, drawing out his watch; +"it's exactly ten minutes before they close. We can finish this game in +five, and have plenty of time."</p> + +<p>Watches do not always do their duty, any more than boys. Elmer's was +five minutes slow—it must have caught the disease from him. The game +went on. Will was going to win, he thought, and both boys grew excited +over it; finally they fell into a slight dispute.</p> + +<p>And—what was that? The steamboat bell! Clang! Ding, dong! Both boys +scrambled up their marbles and rushed to the gate. It was shut! They +shouted for the gate-keeper; he was nowhere in sight.</p> + +<p>They cried to the captain, "Wait! Wait!"</p> + +<p>But the clanging of the bell was their only answer.</p> + +<p>Then the call "All aboard!"</p> + +<p>The plank was drawn in, and the boat steamed down the river, the song +of the children floating back on the breeze.</p> + +<p>Sure enough! There they were, looking sorrowfully through the gate, +just as Mr. Willard had said.</p> + +<p>"It was all your fault," Will said.</p> + +<p>Then he turned and ran away as fast as he could lest Elmer should see +him crying.</p> + +<p>Elmer looked about, astonished to find himself alone and really left +behind. He could not believe it possible that the boat would not turn +about and take him. Everybody had always waited for him before. But +there they were, speeding on their way. It was too much!</p> + +<p>He was angry, and "so" disappointed. Left behind! And all for those +miserable mean marbles! He took them from his pocket and threw them as +far as he could. He would have scolded, but there was nobody there to +hear. He would have cried, but he thought he was too big. Oh, what a +fool he had been! Was there ever such a fool before?</p> + +<p>He did not want to go home; he did not want to go anywhere or do +anything. He sat down on a box and kicked his heels against it. What a +mean old world it was!</p> + +<p>Perhaps his good angel leaned over him just then, for his thoughts took +a sudden turn:</p> + +<p>"It was my fault," he said to himself. "I'm always too late, and +everybody's poking at me about it. Why can't I turn about and be like +other folks! I declare I 'will!' I'll begin this very day."</p> + +<p>He got down from his box at once and started towards home. In a little +old-fashioned house which he passed lived auntie Simons, an old lady +who was auntie to the whole town. She was out brushing off her front +steps.</p> + +<p>The old lady stopped, and leaning on her broom, looked over her +spectacles a minute to make sure that it was really Elmer.</p> + +<p>"Why, my child!" she said, as he came nearer. "What does all this mean? +I thought you had gone to a picnic."</p> + +<p>"I got left," Elmer said, his eyes fastened on the tree trunk near him.</p> + +<p>"Now you don't say! Too bad! Well, don't look so downhearted. Come in +and see me a spell. Come! I'm going to have flapjacks and maple syrup +for breakfast, and I know you are half-starved by this time; didn't +have time to snatch only a bite, now did you?"</p> + +<p>What boy could withstand the attractions of flapjacks and maple syrup? +Besides, he really was hungry. Excitement had prevented his eating much +breakfast, so in he went.</p> + +<p>While auntie Simons helped him bountifully to smoking hot cakes and +golden syrup, he told her all about it—how he came to be left, and how +he had resolved to turn over a new leaf.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it does seem foolish," the old lady said when they sat on the +porch after breakfast, "for you to lose a whole day's pleasure just by +waiting a little bit too long, when you might have gone as well as not; +but what shall we say of one who puts off coming to Christ until it is +too late? Don't you, dear boy, say 'Time enough' to that. You can't +tell how little time there may be left. You know when the gate down by +the wharf was shut on you, you had a chance to sit down and think it +all over, and make up your mind that you would be all right the next +time, anyhow; but you see when the door is shut at the last—in death—it +is shut 'forever.' It is open now. Jesus says, 'Come.' Do not put it +off, Elmer dear."</p> + + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_7">A CUP OF COLD WATER.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"PLEASE to get my china cup for me, Ann," Daisy said, coming in from +the "sweet out-doors," as she called it, where she had been trying to +read her new picture-book.</p> + +<p>Ann was shelling peas for dinner, and did not wish to be disturbed.</p> + +<p>"What do you want of your cup?" she asked crossly.</p> + +<p>"I want to get a drink for an old man."</p> + +<p>"Well, take the dipper."</p> + +<p>"No, the dipper won't do; I must have my cup, and I'm in a great hurry, +a 'fearful' hurry," Daisy said, imitating her brother Tom.</p> + +<p>"I can't be bothered with your notions," Ann said, making her fingers +fly very fast. "I'm in a hurry too; it's high time these peas were +cooking; besides, what old man is it? I don't believe your mother would +let you give a drink of water out of your cup to every old fellow that +came along if she was at home; like enough he's a tramp."</p> + +<p>"No, he isn't a tramp; he's a 'siple. He told me so."</p> + +<p>"A 'siple!" Ann said, bursting into a laugh. "What's that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, papa read about them in the Bible. They are Jesus' servants, and +he wants folks to give 'em a good drink of cold water when they are +firsty."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image008" style="max-width: 27.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image008.jpg" alt="image008"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>DAISY.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"Well, I can't help it," said Ann, laughing again. "I can't be jumping +up from my work all the time to wait on everybody. Take a dipper, if +you must give him a drink."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" cried Daisy. "I told you the dipper wouldn't do. It said a +cup; and I want my very bufulest one—that one with little birds on it. +Come! Do get it for me."</p> + +<p>"Can't do it," Ann said, shelling peas with all her might.</p> + +<p>Poor Daisy was hot and tired. She rested her elbows on the doorsill, +and her chin on her hands, and looked very despairing. Two great tears +came into her eyes, and at last she buried her face in her white apron +and began to sob just as grandpa came along from the garden.</p> + +<p>"Tut! Tut!" said grandpa. "What's the matter with my pet?"</p> + +<p>He sat down on the step, drew Daisy to him, and wiped her warm, +tear-stained face with his clean linen handkerchief. It took but a few +seconds to make grandpa understand what the trouble was; then he got up +and said:</p> + +<p>"Come and show me where it is."</p> + +<p>The sun came out again on Daisy's face, and with her hand tightly +clasped in grandpa's, she pattered along to the dining-room closet—not +tired a bit now.</p> + +<p>Grandpa reached down the beautiful cup, then he got a pitcher and +filled it with good cold water, and they two went down the front walk +as fast as they could go.</p> + +<p>When old Mr. Burton started out that morning to walk to the next town, +he did not know what a very long, hot walk he had undertaken. He was a +stranger, and was on his way to his son's house. When he left the cars, +the stage had gone. He was too poor to hire a carriage to take him +over, so he had to walk five miles in a burning sun.</p> + +<p>As he jogged along, he grew very thirsty. He wished there was a spring +by the roadside, but there was none. He came in sight of a large white +house on the hill, and said to himself:</p> + +<p>"I have a great notion to go in there and get a drink of water; but +then, they are rich folks. They would take me for a tramp, and maybe +set the dog on me."</p> + +<p>As he came slowly along, looking up at the broad lawn with cool shadows +of the great trees over it, he spied at the front gate a little girl. +Her rosy face was hidden away in a white sunbonnet, but her blue eyes +looked up smilingly.</p> + +<p>"Be you a 'siple?" she asked shyly.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image009" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image009.jpg" alt="image009"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>GRANDPA.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"A what?" the old man said, looking down.</p> + +<p>"A 'siple. Do you love Jesus?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you mean a disciple! Yes, little one, I belong to the Lord Jesus," +Mr. Burton said.</p> + +<p>"Do you want a drink of water?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, my dear."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll bring you one."</p> + +<p>And Daisy's white dress vanished among the bushes while, the tired old +man sat on the green grass at the edge of the walk and waited.</p> + +<p>He was beginning to think he should see no more of her, when she +appeared with a pretty china cup full of cold water; then grandpa came +with the pitcher full, and the thirsty traveller had all the water he +needed.</p> + +<p>Grandpa invited him into the house to get a lunch before he went. +Then Prince was harnessed and brought round, and grandpa said he had +promised Daisy that he would take her to ride, and they might as well +drive toward Woodbury as anywhere. So they all got into the carriage, +and old Prince trotted off. The road was so smooth, the air so sweet, +and the talk so pleasant, that before they knew it, they were at +Woodbury; and there they left Mr. Burton.</p> + +<p>He said he never should forget the little girl who brought him the cup +of cold water, but that every day of his life he would ask God to bless +her.</p> + +<p>The verse that Daisy meant can be found in Matthew x:42.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_8">ON NANTUCKET WHARF.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>ALL was bustle and confusion in Mrs. Maynard's house in Boston, for she +and her daughter Mattie were going to Nantucket Beach to stay a night, +then to the Island Home to spend a week. It was the first time Mattie +had been on the cars, for she was only six years old, and she had been +but very few times on the steamboat.</p> + +<p>At last they started. They were to go to New Bedford by the cars, and +there to take a steamboat for Nantucket.</p> + +<p>They had a very pleasant time at Nantucket, and Mattie arose bright and +early on the morning in which she was to take her ride to Island Home. +The boat was to start at ten o'clock. There was a great crowd on the +wharf and Mattie held tight her mother's hand for fear she might get +lost.</p> + +<p>"Why, there is Mr. Ridgeway!" Mrs. Maynard said. "He is an old friend +of mine and I must speak to him."</p> + +<p>And she dropped Mattie's hand, and pushed through the crowd.</p> + +<p>Mattie did not like her mother to leave her, but she stood still where +she left her, so that she might be sure and find her when she came back.</p> + +<p>She waited there a long time, but no Mrs. Maynard was to be seen. +Mattie was very much frightened, and tried to get back to the place +where her mother left her, but the crowd was so great that she could +hardly move at all, for a little girl was not noticed at all in it.</p> + +<p>After wandering about for awhile, a gruff voice called:</p> + +<p>"Passengers for the Island Home all aboard! Boat goes in ten minutes! +All aboard! All aboard!"</p> + +<p>Everybody began to push forward, and soon the wharf was nearly empty.</p> + +<p>Mattie knew her mother had not bought her ticket, and she went up +to the ticket-office and asked the man if a "pretty lady in a linen +duster, with a red feather in her hat, bought a ticket for the Island +Home?"</p> + +<p>"Do you think I keep account in a note-book of the color of all the +folks' dresses and what kind of feathers they have on their hats?" he +asked gruffly.</p> + +<p>Mettle did not know what to say to this, so she said nothing, but +wandered off to the farther part of the wharf and climbed up on some +bags that lay behind a pile of boxes there. On these she knelt down and +said:</p> + +<p>"Dear Jesus, let mamma find me soon, and keep me safely till she comes. +For Jesus' sake. Amen."</p> + +<p>She repeated this simple prayer many times, and then went out from +behind the pile of boxes again. She was very thirsty, and was very glad +when she saw a faucet and a tin cup at the side of the ticket-office. +She took a drink and was much refreshed, but was very tired, and she +thought she would go and rest on the bags behind the boxes. She sat +down on these, and was soon fast asleep. She awoke about four o'clock +in the afternoon, and as she was rubbing her eyes and wondering where +she was, she was startled by a voice exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"And what's the loikes of this, shure?"</p> + +<p>She looked up, and saw a gruff, but kindly-seeming man looking down at +her. He was evidently a working-man, for he had his dinner-pail in his +hand, and was leaning on a pick-axe and shovel.</p> + +<p>Said Mattie:</p> + +<p>"I'm Mattie Maynard, and I'm lost. That is, mamma left me on the wharf +in the crowd, and didn't come back, and I'm awful hungry."</p> + +<p>"And shure and me name is not Patrick O' Flannigan if I don't give ye +something to eat. Poor gir-r-l!"</p> + +<p>Whereupon he opened his pail and offered her a generous ham sandwich.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you ever so much!" cried Mattie, as she took a large bite.</p> + +<p>True, the bread was sour and the butter was strong, but Mattie was so +hungry that she did not notice the defects in the food. Patrick sat +down on the bags and watched her eat with great interest.</p> + +<p>"An' ye can eat now, can't ye? Poor little gir-r-l! But I must be +a-goin', shure!"</p> + +<p>And he got up and went off the wharf.</p> + +<p>There were many steamboats coming and going at Nantucket wharf, and +Mattie climbed up on the boxes and watched the crowds as they passed by.</p> + +<p>But at last night came on, and Mattie did not know what to do. She +crept in among the bags, and covered herself up, but they smelled bad, +and she knew she could not sleep on them all night. She thought once +she would ask the ticket agent to let her stay in the ticket-office, +but he had spoken so crossly to her that morning that she did not like +to. She was not very sleepy, because of the long nap she had taken in +the daytime, and wandered about on the wharf till about eleven o'clock, +and then she went and sat down on the bags and fell asleep.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image010" style="max-width: 30.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image010.jpg" alt="image010"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>THE ISLAND HOME LEAVES THE WHARF.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>When she woke up, the morning sun was streaming into her eyes, and from +the hurrying to and fro of many feet, she knew that the morning steamer +had come in from the Island Home. She got up and watched the crowd, for +she thought maybe her mother might have gone to the Island Home, after +all, and had come back.</p> + +<p>Sure enough! Just as the crowd had passed, she saw the "red feather" on +her mother's hat and gave a little scream of delight as she saw her go +over and speak to the ticket agent. She ran eagerly over to her, pulled +her dress and called:</p> + +<p>"Mamma! Mamma! Here I am!"</p> + +<p>Her mother turned suddenly and caught her in her arms and cried:</p> + +<p>"My darling child!"</p> + +<p>Then the whole story came out. Mrs. Maynard had been detained about +half an hour in getting through the crowd, and when she finally came +to where she had left Mattie, and she was not there, she was very much +frightened, and found Mr. Ridgeway again, and told him about it.</p> + +<p>They followed the crowd into town, and, following them everywhere, +ascertained that she was not among them. They anxiously turned back to +the wharf just, as the steamer pulled up, and the crowd began to rush +on board. They hoped that Mattie might also have gone on the steamer, +and went through it hunting for her. But while they were hunting, the +boat started, and Mrs. Maynard was obliged to stay at the Island Home +all night, and was just coming off the steamer when she was discovered +by Mattie. They took the ten o'clock boat for the Island Home, and +spent a very happy week there. But as Mattie was going to bed that +night, she said:</p> + +<p>"Mamma, I want to tell you something."</p> + +<p>"Well, darling?"</p> + +<p>"I asked God to have you find me, and to keep me safe till you did, and +I think that is the reason you did."</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling, I think so too; and I thank him very much for sparing my +Mattie to me. Let us kneel down and tell him so now."</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_9">LILY DAY.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>IT was surprising, how many people were of the same mind that week. +The cause of it was lilies. It seemed as if there must have been a +convention of lilies held in Fairview at that time, for they were out +in full glory.</p> + +<p>The tall tiger lilies blazed and glowed in the sunshine; the day lilies +opened their white bells, the yellow lilies gleamed like gold, and away +down on Silver Lake, lovely pond lilies, cool, and pure, and white, +with golden hearts, lay amid broad green leaves.</p> + +<p>The people who first got the idea in their heads that it would be nice +to put some lilies in the church that week, were very young people. In +fact, it came into one little head first—Kitty Grey's.</p> + +<p>And how could she help thinking up all manner of splendid plans, when +she lived so near to the beautiful lake that from her window up-stairs +she could look across to the other shore and see here and there white +blossoms on the water. She clapped her hands with joy when she first +discovered them, and ran down-stairs crying:</p> + +<p>"They're out! They're out! Mamma, can't Ray and I go in the boat and +get some pond lilies right away now?"</p> + +<p>Silver Lake was a shallow little thing—a saucerful of water, papa +said—and Ray, though a little fellow, could manage a boat nicely. Mamma +readily gave consent, and it was but a few minutes before Kitty sat in +the stern of the boat, drawing her hand through the water, her very +dearest friend Mabel in the bow, and Ray rowing with all his might to +the spot where those wonderful lilies floated white and fair.</p> + +<p>"I know what we'll do," Kitty said, as they filled the large basket +they had brought with them as full as it could hold. "We'll trim the +church for to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"So we will," said Mabel.</p> + +<p>And Ray said:</p> + +<p>"All right; that will be splendid. I'll get a lot of ferns to put with +these."</p> + +<p>About that time, old Mrs. Parks was walking her garden, trimming off +dead leaves and cutting flowers. She came along to a large bunch of red +lilies, and clipped them off.</p> + +<p>"We haven't had any flowers in church this long time," she said to +herself. "I'll just send these over. They are such handsome things, +it's a pity everybody shouldn't enjoy them."</p> + +<p>So she brought them into the house, got down from the top shelf of the +pantry an old blue pitcher, and putting her flowers in it, filled it +with water, promising herself to take them to the parsonage between +daylight and dark.</p> + +<p>"Cinthy's tasty, and she can fix them up in shape for the church," she +said.</p> + +<p>Cynthia Morrow was the minister's daughter. She herself had a plan for +making the little church beautiful—to smile a welcome to the Sabbath +morning.</p> + +<p>Down at the end of the garden was a plot of day lilies. They belonged +to her. She had put them out herself, and watched and watered them, +and waited for them, and now this week they blossomed out in queenly +beauty. She intended to surprise her father next morning. How pleased +he would be to find his favorite flower on the pulpit desk, its pure +whiteness and its rare sweetness sending up incense with the songs of +praise.</p> + +<p>The next one who gathered lilies was Miss Alice Lynde. She was a young +lady from New York, spending the summer with her uncle in Fairview.</p> + +<p>Miss Alice took long walks every day over the fields and hills, and so +her cheeks, which were pale when she came from the city, were getting +to be the color of wild roses.</p> + +<p>This morning her walk happened to be longer than usual. She went +farther out into the country than she had ever been before, lured on by +a glimpse of bright yellow flowers she could see in the distance. They +turned out to be lilies. Miss Alice was delighted. She filled her arms +with them at once, thinking while she chose the finest blossoms what a +lovely bouquet she would make for the church.</p> + +<p>It would seem as if all the people who had been gathering lilies that +day had made an appointment to meet at the church after tea that +evening, but they never had, though they all met.</p> + +<p>Nobody felt quite at liberty to carry their flowers to the church. It +might look as if they had set up to interfere with somebody's else +arrangements. So all made their way to the parsonage at that pleasant +time between the day and night when country people run in to see each +other.</p> + +<p>Each one found that Cynthia was already at the church; gone to carry +over some flowers, her mother said.</p> + +<p>What was Cynthia's surprise, as she stood on the platform arranging her +vases, to see Kitty and Ray come in tugging a large basket full of pond +lilies and ferns.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what beauties! I am so glad you brought them," Cynthia was saying +when Mrs. Parks put her head in at the door.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose you've got flowers enough without these," she said, holding +out a great bunch of red lilies.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, indeed!" Cynthia said. "How pretty they will be with the white +ones! I wish we had somebody to help us arrange them."</p> + +<p>While they were all bending over the flowers admiring them, a little +rustle was heard, and when they looked up, there was Miss Alice gliding +softly down the aisle with a great sheaf of yellow lilies in her arms. +She made a pretty picture to the children's eyes, her white dress and +white hat, her smiling face, and the lovely flowers.</p> + +<p>Their admiring "O—h—" was not meant for the flowers alone.</p> + +<p>"I should say that all the lilies in the country have agreed to come +here and hold a meeting," said Mrs. Parks.</p> + +<p>Miss Alice pulled off her gloves and went to work. She knew just how +to arrange flowers. Mrs. Parks went home for some pans, Ray went for +water, and Kitty hunted up some vases, while Cynthia sorted the flowers.</p> + +<p>How lovely it was when all was done! There was a bank of pond lilies +and ferns just under the pulpit. There was a mound of red and white +lilies on the table, and vases on the desk of pure white and green +only. Cynthia said that must be so. And then there was a masterpiece +of beauty, made by Miss Alice's skilful fingers—a sort of pyramid of +flowers, all colors mingled, with feathery ferns drooping about the +whole.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>Next morning at church everybody was surprised, because, as a rule, +they did not have flowers in church at Fairview, beyond a simple +handful in a vase. Nobody, though, was more surprised than the +self-appointed flower committee themselves were when the minister's +text was announced. They could not resist smiling at each other.</p> + +<p>You see Mr. Morrow had been noticing the flowers rather more than usual +that week. Even while he was considering what his text should be, his +eye fell on a cluster of tall white lilies. He found himself studying +their graceful shapes, their whiteness and fragrance, and then began +to wonder at the thought that the same great God who made the worlds, +made the tiny flowers, and that he took so much pains, making so many +different shapes and colors, each with its own rare fragrance, to +please us because he loves us.</p> + +<p>It was not strange, then, that Mr. Morrow's text should be, "Consider +the lilies."</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_10">THE GREENLANDER.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>GREENLAND is a very cold country, much colder than it is here. For +three months in the year the sun is never seen; and for nearly nine +months the land is covered all over with snow. We have plenty of nice +fruit in summer, and many good things all the year round; but the poor +Greenlanders live mostly on seal's flesh, blubber, and oil.</p> + +<p>Poor, poor Greenlanders, they live so miserably; and, what is much +worse, many of them know nothing whatever of Jesus and his love! But +God loves them; for He loved the world, and gave "his only begotten +Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have +everlasting life," so that, if a Greenlander hears of Jesus, he too may +be saved.</p> + +<p>Now, some good men pitied the poor heathen in Greenland, and thought +they would like to go and tell them of Jesus, how he was born in +Bethlehem, how good and kind He was to every one, how He gave sight to +the blind, healed the sick, raised the dead, how He died on the Cross +for sinners, how He went to the grave and then to Heaven, how He will +come again.</p> + +<p>Well, they went to Greenland and labored there for eight long, weary +years. At last they got tired laboring so long without any apparent +success, and thought upon returning to their homes. They had suffered a +great deal from cold and hunger, and the people only laughed at them, +and mocked them. But these dear missionaries had made a great mistake, +for instead of telling the people as they meant to do of Jesus and his +great love in dying and rising again from the dead, telling the sweet, +sweet story of the Cross, they found them so very ignorant that the +missionaries thought to begin with proving that God lives, and that He +made all things. Now, this was a great mistake, for we are sinners, and +we need to know—not that God is the Creator, but that "God is love," +and that Jesus died.</p> + +<p>One day a party of heathen Greenlanders came to the missionary village. +They were led by a cruel and wicked Greenlander named Kajarnak, and +entered the hut where the missionary was writing. He was finishing his +final correction of the Four Gospels, and was at the moment engaged +on that part of John's Gospel relating to the sufferings and death of +Christ. Kajarnak was surprised at seeing the missionary writing, and at +once asked him what he was doing.</p> + +<p>"Writing."</p> + +<p>"Writing!" said Kajarnak. "What is writing?"</p> + +<p>The missionary tried to explain it to him, and then said, "I will read +you what I have been writing."</p> + +<p>He read the account of Christ's agony in the garden, and then upon the +Cross, with the story of his being crowned, scourged, and spit upon. As +he read, Kajarnak became interested.</p> + +<p>"And why," he asked, "did they treat the man so? What had he done?"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the missionary. "This man did nothing amiss, but Kajarnak +did. Kajarnak filled the land with wickedness; and Kajarnak deserved to +go to hell for it. But this man suffered all this to bear Kajarnak's +punishment, that Kajarnak might not go to hell."</p> + +<p>And then the missionary went on to tell about God's love, man's sin, +and Christ's work for sinners, till the big tears were seen to roll +down the poor heathen's cheeks, and unable any longer to restrain his +feelings, he cried—</p> + +<p>"Oh! Tell it all over again, for I, too, would like to be saved."</p> + +<p>He was told it all over again—it was such a sweet story. Kajarnak +believed the good news. His heart was drawn to Christ. He loved him. +Kajarnak was saved.</p> + +<p>Are you saved, dear young reader? You have often heard and often read +of Jesus and of his sufferings. Perhaps, too, you have often wept as +you thought of the cruel men scourging Jesus and spitting on his face. +But though you cry very much, it won't save you. The blood of Jesus +puts sin away, and nothing else will do it.</p> + +<p>Will you now love Jesus? Poor Kajarnak, from "Greenland's icy +mountains," with a heart colder than the ice, and darker than the +darkest night, yet came to Jesus, believed in God's love, and was saved.</p> + +<p>How I long that all my dear young readers too would seek the same +Saviour, and love the Jesus that loved Kajarnak, the Greenlander.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_11">SOME YOUNG HEROES.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>IN a certain school, a knot of boys had their heads together disputing +about something. You could never guess what it was if you tried. It +would all have seemed strange to you: the schoolroom, the teacher, and +the scholars—their odd dress and odder speech. It was in far-off Asia, +and the scholars were not orderly as ours. The boys talked when they +pleased, and made so much din that one could scarcely hear themselves +think.</p> + +<p>Missionaries had come to this city and opened schools and churches to +teach the people that they must worship God alone, and that Jesus died +to save them.</p> + +<p>When the natives found that their boys were beginning to stray into +Protestant schools, they said, "We must start schools of our own," and +so they started one. But it was too late; some of the boys had already +learned to love Jesus, sing sweet hymns, and read the Bible.</p> + +<p>The teacher in this school was a very bitter enemy of the new religion, +so he listened sharply that day when he heard a discussion going on +among the boys. It was not in our language, but it was something like +this.</p> + +<p>One boy said it was not right to worship pictures of saints, nor to +kiss them, and burn candles before them.</p> + +<p>Another one said: "It 'is' right; it's the only true religion."</p> + +<p>Others joined in with the first boy, and said it was wrong, and that we +must worship none but God.</p> + +<p>Then the dispute grew warmer, and there were cries of "Heretic! +Heretic! Mean old heretic! Mean old Protestant!" and so on.</p> + +<p>The teacher had made up his mind that this thing must be stopped; that +the boys must not go any more where they would hear such bad doctrine, +so he said in a loud, strong voice:</p> + +<p>"Boys, stand up!"</p> + +<p>They all stood up.</p> + +<p>"Now let all the Protestants step out."</p> + +<p>He did not suppose that any one would dare to confess to him that he +was a Protestant, but those little Christians must have remembered the +solemn words of the Saviour, how he said:</p> + +<p class="letter"> +<br> + "If any men will confess me on the earth I also will confess him before +my father which is in heaven."<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p>There was a moment's pause, then seven little fellows stepped out. The +teacher was amazed.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image011" style="max-width: 27.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image011.jpg" alt="image011"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>ONE OF THE SCHOLARS.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"What!" he said. "Don't you believe in worshiping the pictures of +saints?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, we don't; mad please, sir," said the bravest of them all, "if +Jesus wanted us to worship pictures of the saints, wouldn't he have +left us his own picture to worship?"</p> + +<p>This was an unanswerable argument, but the tyrant teacher did not let +them know how they had cornered him.</p> + +<p>He said, "Boys, how shall these heretics be punished?"</p> + +<p>And the boys decided they must be "spit upon."</p> + +<p>So the whole school formed a procession and marched around those seven, +spitting upon them as they went.</p> + +<p>"Now sing!" the teacher said, and all the school except the seven +struck up one of their patriotic songs.</p> + +<p>"Sing, I tell you!" he said to the seven.</p> + +<p>"We will, if you will sing the songs of Jesus," was the grand answer of +the martyrs.</p> + +<p>"Sing it yourselves!" said the teacher.</p> + +<p>And, wonderful to tell, this sweet song came to the ears of the +astonished teacher:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<br> +"Must Jesus bear the cross alone,<br> + And all the world go free?<br> + No, there's a cross for every one,<br> + And there's a cross for me."<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_12">THE SECRET OF IT.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>ONE October afternoon Frank Stevens was gathering apples in his +father's orchard. Great piles of golden pippins and rosy Baldwins lay +under the trees, waiting to be sorted and packed in the barrels that +were standing near. His brother Kent, many years older than himself, +was helping. It so happened that their work lay for a time near the +main road where people came and went. Leaning against the fence was Mr. +Marvin, who had stopped for a little neighborly chat.</p> + +<p>Down the hill, trotting leisurely along, came a black pony. On his back +was Harry Porter, one of Frank's schoolmates. He, too, drew up by the +fence, and as he called, "Halloo, Frank!" cast a longing eye at the red +apples.</p> + +<p>After chatting a few minutes, he trotted off again, an apple in his +hand, and two in each pocket.</p> + +<p>"That's a splendid boy!" said Mr. Kent Stevens.</p> + +<p>"Yes; there's the making of a fine man in him," answered Mr. Marvin; +"he's uncommonly bright, I noticed him at the examination last spring; +clear as a bell he was, working hard examples and talking off the +explanation as glibly as the professor himself. I reckon it would have +puzzled some of us committee to have done it."</p> + +<p>Frank listened in silence as the talk went on while he sorted the fair +apples from the knurly. He had a gloomy, cross look on his face, as +though his thoughts were not pleasant ones, and he did not work in his +usual brisk way.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Marvin went away, his thoughts came out.</p> + +<p>"No wonder," he said, "that Harry Porter is always praised up so. He +has some chance in the world. His father is rich; he has a new book +every time he turns around; his father never goes away but he brings +him one; then he goes travelling. He has been out West and been to +Boston and New York. He has been on the top of Pike's Peak, and he has +seen Bunker Hill monument and the obelisk. Why shouldn't he know more +than any of the rest of us? He has lots of time besides, to study, and +have fun, too. Out of school he needn't do anything but trot about on +that pony. What's the use of a fellow like me trying to make anything +of himself?"</p> + +<p>It was not such a very long time ago that Kent Stevens had been a boy +himself, even if he was now a young lawyer in the city. He came every +summer to the old home for a play spell, he called it, and then he +proved that he had not forgotten how to rake hay and pick apples. He +had not forgotten, either, how a boy feels, so he was excellent company +for Frank. He placed the last apple in a closely packed barrel, then he +turned and looked curiously at his brother.</p> + +<p>"Why, Frank! What has got into you to-day?" he said. "You don't seem +one bit like our bright cheery boy. Do you think you are one of the +fellows who has no chance? Let us sit down in this sunny spot and rest +ourselves, and count up some of your chances.—A good home, a splendid +father and mother—to say nothing of a very wise brother—a few good +books, a weekly newspaper, a church and Sabbath-school, an excellent, +day-school, good eyes and ears and stomach, a pair of legs that can run +like a squirrel, two strong arms, and a very good mind, and here you +talk of not having 'chances!'</p> + +<p>"How do yours look when you cast your eye at little Tim Morey with a +drunken father and a shanty for a home, or at Johnny Wilson, who is +almost blind, or poor Will Smith who must go for the rest of his life +on crutches and suffer much pain? Or compare your lot with the boys who +work in the factory, who must go to their work at seven in the morning +and stay until seven in the evening, day after day, year after year. +What about their chances? Don't you know, dear boy, that as a rule, it +is not boys with rich fathers who turn out to be the greatest men?</p> + +<p>"Look at me," he said, straightening himself up and marching about with +mock pompousness. "Haven't I put the sweat of my brow and my muscle +into this old farm? Didn't I get out of my bed at cock-crowing and go +after the cows in wet grass up to my knees?</p> + +<p>"Haven't I milked and ploughed and planted corn and hoed it and husked +it? And yet, I got through and had no more hard work than was good for +me, I believe now, though I used to grumble sometimes just as you are +doing now.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, my boy, it is not in having this or that, or going here +and there, that makes a success, but it is improving, to the very +utmost, the advantages one has, though they be not the best.</p> + +<p>"There is another secret too. One must be in dead earnest; must have an +aim and stick to it in spite of anything, and the greatest secret of +all is, that aim must not be alone to be a rich man or a learned man, +but it must be this—'to make the very most of one's self for Christ's +sake.' And you can't begin too young; the younger the better.</p> + +<p>"I heard something about two men the other day, that is just in point +here—but perhaps you are tired of my preaching and want to go in."</p> + +<p>"Oh no, tell it," said Frank. "You know I would rather have you preach +to me than anybody else."</p> + +<p>"Well, a good many years ago two boys lived in the same town and went +to the same school. They both had pretty good advantages and were +naturally bright and clear-headed. All the difference between them +was, that from the time they were very little fellows, John was always +laying plans to have a 'good time.'</p> + +<p>"Will loved fun as well as he did, but in both fun and work, his chief +aim was to be right and true.</p> + +<p>"As they grew up to be young men, Will held fast to the choice he had +made when a little boy.</p> + +<p>"The Lord Jesus Christ was his master.</p> + +<p>"John had an entirely different master; he shirked his lessons, and +wasted his time and money in what he called 'fun.'</p> + +<p>"When school days were over, one of them had a fine start in his +education, but poor John was almost a dunce, it was surprising how +little he knew thoroughly.</p> + +<p>"When Will went into business, he made a resolution in the very +beginning to give a certain part of his money to the Lord's work, +whether he made much or little. He was prospered, and he grew to be +a rich, strong man, foremost in every good work; everybody loved and +honored him. He was a grand temperance worker, and he gave great sums +to the poor and helped educate many young men for the ministry. The +more he gave away the richer he grew, but he kept giving, and for some +time before his death it is said that he gave away a thousand dollars a +day!</p> + +<p>"Will was William E. Dodge who died a few weeks ago in the city. You +remember the papers were filled with accounts of him. Nobody could say +a word against him, and the whole city was in mourning.</p> + +<p>"It is strange that as the boys came into the world about the same +time, they left it within a few days of each other. But oh! so +differently. There were no weeping friends at John's funeral. Nobody +said over his coffin, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.' Not +one cried, 'How shall his place be filled.'</p> + +<p>"John had become a miserable sot. Nearly all his old friends had +lost sight of him. He lived without God, and so he died without +him, miserable and alone, and he was carried to his grave from the +almshouse—just a rough pine box in a cart—and that was the last of +John, for this life.</p> + +<p>"Don't you see, Frank, that under God's blessing, every boy has it in +his own power to choose whether his life shall be lived and ended like +John's or like William E. Dodge's?"</p> + +<p>"It was a good sermon, Kent," Frank said soberly, as they walked up to +the house. "It helps me; I'll not forget."</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_13">THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>HOW often Grace and Nellie had heard these words.</p> + +<p>"I'm sick to death of them," said Nellie. "I am going to try to have +the most fun I can to-morrow, and I'll risk but what I'll be happy +enough."</p> + +<p>"And I am going to try grandma's way of having fun to-morrow. Just for +a change, I am going to do everything 'exactly right.' She seems so +sure that that way is the best. Do you suppose there are any good plays +or jolly times for little girls who always do every thing 'perfectly +right?'"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, Gracie! You know that if you are going to be very good +to-morrow, you ought to sew on papa's handkerchief, so as to finish it +for his birthday present. I can't finish mine, for I've planned to go +sailing on Tom's raft on the duck pond. I shall take all my dolls, land +on the little island, and pull of my shoes and stockings, and play I +am Robinson Crusoe, and the ducks will be the savages, and when they +come swimming towards me, I shall hide in the bushes, or else jump on +the raft and push out to sea. You had better come too, and be my man +Friday."</p> + +<p>"But, Nellie, you know mamma said for us not to play on the duck pond, +for we always wet our feet."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but I shall wear rubbers this time, and it was last week she said +that; she did not say we should not play there to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Well! You must play there alone, for I am going to try grandma's way +of being happy for one whole day, and if I don't like it, next day I +will play on the duck pond."</p> + +<p>These two little girls were twin sisters, eight years old. They were +pretty, bright, and full of fun, and now they were going to have a +week's vacation; a whole week without study, and they had planned plays +enough to last most little girls three weeks.</p> + +<p>But last night grandma had told them a long and interesting story about +a boy who always did just as he pleased in every thing. He was selfish +and disobedient, but he was never happy. At last he was so unhappy and +miserable, that he made up his mind to give up his naughty ways and to +be a good boy, and behold, everything was changed.</p> + +<p>"So you see, my dears, as I have often told you, in order to be happy, +you must be good."</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="image012" style="max-width: 25.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/image012.jpg" alt="image012"></figure> +<p class="t4"> +<b>NELLIE LEFT AT HOME.</b><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>"I am sick of that sort of stories," said Nellie.</p> + +<p>"I am going to try for one day to see if I can be happy by being good," +said Gracie thoughtfully.</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>The next morning dawned bright and warm.</p> + +<p>"Such a lovely day for my play," said Nellie, as she tucked a big piece +of cake in her pocket, and with her arms full of dollies, went dancing +off across the fields to the pond.</p> + +<p>"That child can't be going to the pond, after all I said the other +day," said mamma, glancing anxiously after Nellie.</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" said grandma. "She is probably going to play in the grove by +the side of it."</p> + +<p>"And so my little Grace is going to finish her present for papa's +birthday," said mamma with a pleased look at the little girl, who was +stitching away in the window.</p> + +<p>"I feel a little bit happy now," thought Gracie, as she saw her +mother's smiling face. But it was a long hour, and the little fingers +felt very lame before the handkerchief was done, but at last the last +stitch was taken, and it was carefully folded and a card marked, "Papa +from Gracie," pinned on it, all ready to put by his plate to-morrow +morning at breakfast.</p> + +<p>"Children, do you want to go with me to spend the day at aunt Mary's?" +calls papa, from the doorway. "Just put on your hats; the horse is +harnessed, and I am waiting. Where is Nellie?"</p> + +<p>At that moment Nellie came in at the door, wet and dirty, with the +blood dropping from a cut on her forehead, and crying bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my poor little girl, where have you been?" said mamma, as she +wiped the blood from her face.</p> + +<p>"I was Robinson Crusoe," sobbed Nellie, "and the cake was my +provisions, and when the savages saw my cake they came swimming and +flying all on to my raft; then I tried to push them off, and I tumbled +right into the water and mud, and they got my cake; and my dollies are +drowned."</p> + +<p>"So you went to the duck pond to play; you knew better than that," said +mamma sternly.</p> + +<p>"If she has disobeyed you, she must stay at home," said papa. "Come, +Gracie!"</p> + +<p>In a moment they were driving along the beautiful shady road that led +to aunt Mary's. At first, Gracie felt too sorry for Nellie to be very +happy. But her father, noticing her sad face, told her that if Nellie +was a good girl, he would take her next week, and then he told so many +funny stories about himself when he was a little boy, that it was not +long before she was laughing merrily.</p> + +<p>What a welcome they had at aunt Mary's.</p> + +<p>"We knew you were coming to-day," said Katie, who was Gracie's cousin, +"and we are freezing ice-cream down cellar."</p> + +<p>Then they took their dolls and played happily together all day long. +When Gracie was riding home she told her father that she had never had +such a happy day before in her life.</p> + +<p>"Oh, such a lovely time as I have had!" she exclaimed, as she bounded +into the house.</p> + +<p>Grandma was rocking Nellie in her arms, and was just finishing her +evening story.</p> + +<p>"And so you see, my dear, that just as soon as Jacob made up his mind +to be a good boy, all his troubles ended. Everybody loved him, and he +was very happy and good."</p> + +<p>"I like your kind of stories to-night, grandma," said Nellie softly, in +the old lady's ear, "and I am going to be good to be happy all the rest +of the week."</p> + +<p>"Say all the rest of your life, my dear," whispered back grandma.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3><a id="St_14">THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY.</a></h3> + +<p><br></p> + +<p>YOU'VE never seen a palace? Why, my dears, you have seen a great many. +Sit round me here, and I will tell you about one, the ruins of which +you saw this morning. In some respects it was quite remarkable; not +much like the one Queen Victoria lives in.</p> + +<p>This palace had six walls, and only one room. There were three inner +walls, and three outer ones, and wherever two inner walls met, an outer +wall covered the place. The people who dwelt in the palace called the +walls the "Perianth." Each of the inner walls were called a "petal," +and each of the outer ones a "sepal." They were covered outside and +inside with snowy white silk, filled with the most delicious perfume. +There were no windows, for each wall tapered to a point at, the upper +end, and drooped over the outside of the palace, leaving it, open to +the light and the pure air.</p> + +<p>A house of so delicate a fabric could not rest on the ground without +being soiled by the dust and dirt of the earth, so it was held far +aloft on a slender, green column. It did not stand upright like Queen +Victoria's palace, but it leaned over toward the ground, so that when +the rain came down, none should remain in the palace and drown the +people. They would have fallen out, too, had they not been made as fast +to the floor as were the walls of the palace.</p> + +<p>That seems dreadful to you little people who take such delight in +running about on your little feet. But they were very well contented to +remain where they were and only look out upon the world, for they would +have died had they left their beautiful home.</p> + +<p>The throne covered nearly all the floor of the palace; and the king +stood on the centre of it. His head reached far above the walls, for he +was very tall, and very straight and slender. He wore a robe of pale +green, and on his head was an emerald insignia, more like a helmet than +a crown. It was divided into three parts. One part drooped over and +rested against the back of his head, one part against the right side, +and one against the left.</p> + +<p>There stood around the throne six tall men dressed in white, bearing +salvers of gold-dust on their heads. They called the salvers "anthers," +and the gold-dust "pollen," but it was not like the gold-dust you saw +at the jeweler's.</p> + +<p>I want you to notice how the number three figured in nearly everything. +It was a sacred number with them. There were three inner walls, and +three outer ones. Six (two threes) tall men, and the king's crown was +divided into three parts.</p> + +<p>A strange thing about the tall men was that one could not be +distinguished from another, so near alike were they, and they were each +named "Stamen." Although they were very tall, they were not so tall as +their king. They were very faithful servants, looking always up to him +to know his commands.</p> + +<p>When the wind blew a little, they bowed down before King Pistil, and +the salvers swung back and forth, causing tiny clouds of gold-dust to +rise and fall upon him. Then he was glad, and bowed to them, that they +might see that he was pleased with them. For he only required them to +sprinkle a little gold-dust upon him, then he made it into pieces of +money and packed them away into three large boxes under his throne.</p> + +<p>But sometimes this frail palace was at the mercy of the great winds. It +swayed to and fro before them, tossing the tall men about so they could +not prevent some of the gold-dust falling on the walls.</p> + +<p>Then King Pistil trembled with grief at seeing the gold-dust being +wasted, and the tall men leaned toward him trying to comfort him.</p> + +<p>Then the rain came, and fell into the palace, and washed it clean, and +bathed the king and his servants; and when the sun shone again, they +sparkled all over with diamonds.</p> + +<p>But some strange people passing by stopped to admire them, and to +inhale their sweet fragrance; and one of the palaces with all its +inmates was carried away by them. Then there was mourning, for they +knew it was certain death to any of them if their palace was taken from +the column on which it rested.</p> + +<p>King Pistil's money increased until the boxes could hold no more; and +the throne began to creak as though it would fall apart. The walls of +the palace were falling away too. The tall men looked old and feeble; +and the king felt himself growing weak and infirm, and he knew that +he soon must die. So he unlocked his money boxes, that after he was +gone, they might open, and the money be scattered far and near, and +other palaces spring up, and other kings live, as he had lived, giving +pleasure to all who came near.</p> + +<p>Very soon after, the king and his servants died, the boxes burst open +showing them well filled with money. Some of it fell on the ground +under the palace, that another might spring up there in memory of King +Pistil; and some of it was carried a long distance by the wind before +it was dropped on the ground.</p> + +<p>Now, my dears, let us go into the garden, and look at the white lilies, +and see if my story of their king and his palace is correct. Tell +me, if you can, how his money differed from ours. Why it had to be +scattered on the ground, and what it was called by King Pistil.</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75953 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75953-h/images/image001.jpg b/75953-h/images/image001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..305c290 --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image001.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image002.jpg b/75953-h/images/image002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7103498 --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image002.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image003.jpg b/75953-h/images/image003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..50bda7a --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image003.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image004.jpg b/75953-h/images/image004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c657d57 --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image004.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image005.jpg b/75953-h/images/image005.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d6582b --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image005.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image006.jpg b/75953-h/images/image006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c23f1a --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image006.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image007.jpg b/75953-h/images/image007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e360394 --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image007.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image008.jpg b/75953-h/images/image008.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9842f7f --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image008.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image009.jpg b/75953-h/images/image009.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..747679b --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image009.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image010.jpg b/75953-h/images/image010.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..637aa64 --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image010.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image011.jpg b/75953-h/images/image011.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf667d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image011.jpg diff --git a/75953-h/images/image012.jpg b/75953-h/images/image012.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e44183f --- /dev/null +++ b/75953-h/images/image012.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this book outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..397dd29 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +book #75953 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75953) |
