11. Nelly began to make great haste, while Mercy went to the window and looked out.
"How thick the snow is!" she said. "And how white it looks in the moonshine!
12. "But what is that dark thing standing by the old shed?" Nelly ran up and pressed her little face against the window to peep out too.
"Why, it is a donkey!" she cried. "How did it get there?"
13. "I tell you what," said Mercy, "it is our poor old Brownie, that father sold last week to Mr. Smith, that he might pay the doctor"s bill with the money.
14. "He had spent all we had in getting things for mother when she was ill, you know, and in bread for us. So poor Brownie had to go."
15. "Why does he not go into the shed? How stupid of him to stand there! And why did he not stay with Mr. Smith, I wonder?"
"I suppose he could not help thinking about us, and that is why he came back," said Mercy. "Perhaps Mr. Smith has no little girls to pet him, and maybe he is not so good to him as father was."
_Write:_ Two little girls went to their warm beds. As they looked out at the window they saw a donkey. It stood out in the cold.
Questions: 1. What sort of night did Peter think it was? 2.
What was his wife so glad to think of? 3. What did Mercy say about the hens" house? 4. What did the children see when they looked out at the window? 5. What did Mercy think was the reason why the donkey had come back?
2. A KIND ACT.
1. Mercy and her little sister watched at the window for a minute or two more, but the creature did not move.
2. And Mercy cried out, "Oh, I quite forgot! Of course, the shed door is shut! Father has put his tools there, his spade and rake.
3. "When Brownie was sold the straw which was his bed was taken out, and some sacks of corn and barley were kept there instead.
4. "Poor Brownie! I dare say he wonders why his nice old house is shut up so that he cannot get in!"
5. "I will give him some bread from my breakfast in the morning, because it is Christmas Day," said little Nelly. "He will like that, won"t he?"
6. Her sister made no answer, but, moving from the window, she took down from a peg her hat and thick jacket. She put them on.
7. "Why, Mercy!" said Nelly, who looked with much surprise at what her sister was doing; "what are you doing? You cannot be going out now in the snow?"
8. "Do not make a noise," said Mercy. "You know that mother is not well, and perhaps she is just dropping off to sleep. I cannot bear to leave him freezing out there all night,--Christmas Eve and all!
[Ill.u.s.tration: OUT IN THE COLD.]
9. "I could not creep under the warm blanket and forget him. No one will see him but us, for only our window looks this way. So I am just going to run out and get the shed open for him."
10. "Oh, sister, you will be so cold! Cannot you ask father to go?"
"Oh, you heard him say that he had pains in all his bones. Now be a good child, Nelly, and get quick into bed. I shall soon be back."
11. With these words Mercy tied on a great scarf which was once her father"s round her neck, crept down stairs without making the least noise, and out at the back door.
12. Once out of shelter of the house, it was, as she thought with a shiver, "a bitter night." The snow was no longer falling, but a keen wind swept over the white face of the earth and stirred up the snow.
13. It piled heaps of it up into strange shapes. The frost was so hard that the feet of the child did not sink into it as she ran along.
14. Very soon she reached the shed, outside of which the donkey stood, a picture of patient despair. She plunged through a great heap of drifted snow and reached its side. She patted his rough coat.
15. "Oh, Brownie," she cried, "how cold you are! I must get this door open for you somehow." She pulled it, she jerked it, she kicked it, she shook down showers of snow on herself, and that was all.
16. It was in vain to try. It was frozen hard, and do what she would, she could not stir it an inch. It was hopeless. "Oh, what can I do for you, Brownie?" she thought, ready to cry with grief.
17. "I do so wish you were not so big, and I could take you up the stairs into our bed-room!" And Mercy half laughed at the idea of taking the donkey to bed with her.
18. She gave one last, hard hit and a rattle at the unkind door. "I cannot get it open, Brownie, and I must go home again. It will not do you any good if I stay out here with you."
19. Slowly the child moved away. If it had seemed cold when she first came out, it seemed ten times colder now. And she saw the sad look which the poor beast cast after her when she left him. Mercy could not forget it.
_Write:_ Mercy went out into the cold that she might open the shed door. She wished to let the donkey in. But she could not open it.
Questions: 1. What did Mercy remember about the shed? 2.
What did she put on? 3. Where did she go? 4. What was the weather like outside the house? 5. What did she find on trying to open the shed door? 6. What was it that Mercy could not forget?
3. THE OLD SHED.
1. All of a sudden, as Mercy had quite made up her mind to leave Brownie, and was half way across the yard to her own door, a thought struck her.
2. There was an old shed which had once been the stable of a donkey, quite at the far end of the garden.
3. Her father had turned it into a pigsty; but he had left off keeping pigs for some time. It was a clean place, for Peter did not let his pigs live in a dirty sty as some people do.
4. Some dry straw was in it, and some roots stored for the winter. It would be just the place if only she could get Brownie there.
5. In a moment she turned back to hurry again over the heap of snow to the place where the donkey still stood. He could do nothing for himself to make things better.
6. All that he could do was to bear them without any complaint. Poor thing! He was stiff with cold, and seemed not to wish to move. But Mercy knew what was for his good.
7. She meant to do what was best for poor Brownie, whether he knew it or not. So she talked to him, patted him, and coaxed him till at last he let her lead him down to the old shed at the bottom of the garden.
8. "This is lucky for you, Brownie," cried she, feeling very proud at her success. There was a bundle of hay in one corner, of which she shook down a nice soft armful.
9. And then she gave Brownie one good brisk rubbing with some of the straw, to warm them both. She made him a bed of straw too.
10. Brownie was glad to nibble a mouthful while this was being done.
Then she took some fine carrots from a shelf, and put them in front of him. Oh, how Brownie did munch those fresh juicy roots!
11. Lastly, she found a bucket of clean water which had not long been drawn from the well, and which had only a thin coating of ice on the top.