"How very fortunate!" said Ellen.
After he was gone, Ellen busied herself in making things comfortable for the children. It was market day, and she must carry her heavy basket to the village for the different families who depended upon her for their supply of fresh b.u.t.ter and eggs. A year ago she had a neat little-wagon and a good horse to drive. There was something in the mind of Ellen, what it was she could not tell, a kind of sad presentiment of something, as she was preparing to go to market. I shall tell you in the next story what it was. You will see that Ellen was very kind to her husband, and tried every way to make him happy.
THE MARKET DAY.
Mrs. Ford had three little children, Lily, Hetty, and a dear little babe. As she was now going to market, she told Lily, her oldest daughter, to take good care of the baby. Lily promised to do so. It was a very cold day. For a time the children got along very well; but soon the wood was all burned, not a stick or chip remained; as their father had gone away in the morning without splitting any, so they were obliged to do the best they could. The baby began to look as if it was cold, and Lily said:
"Come, Hetty, we will go out and see if together we cannot roll in one of those great logs."
Hetty was eleven years old. Lily put the baby in the cradle and then went out with Hetty to roll in the log. They rolled it up to the step, and got it part way into the door, but, alas! they could not get it further. There it stuck in the doorway, and the door was wide open; the wind and snow beat in from without, and the fire gradually settled away in its embers.
Something must now be done. Hetty put on her cloak and hood and set out for her mother; for she told them if anything happened to be sure and come for her. Hetty soon found her mother at the village store, and without stopping to warm herself, she said:
"O mother, come home, for little Eddy is sick, and Lily says it is the croup, and that he is dying. The fire is all out, and the room is full of snow, because the big log we tried to roll in stuck fast in the doorway."
Hetty and her mother hastened home: and as they were crossing the street, there was her husband just entering the tavern. She told him about little Eddy, and he promised to go for a physician, and to come home immediately; and by the time they had gone half way home, Edward, her husband, joined them.
They hurried along, and as they came near the cottage there stood two of the cows, and under the shed was the third, the old "spotted cow," which Hetty thought was in the pond when she left home. To their surprise the log was rolled away from the door, and as Mrs. Ford opened the door with a trembling hand, fearing her baby was dead, there was a young man sitting by a good fire, which he had made while Hetty was gone, with little Eddy folded in his arms. The anxious mother bent over her baby as he lay in the stranger"s arms, and seeing his eyes closed, she whispered:
"Is he dead?"
"He is not, he only sleeps," replied the stranger.
This young man came into the house in time to save the baby from the cold chills of death. He was ever after a friend to the family--a means of Edward"s reformation, so that with some a.s.sistance the mortgage on the farm was paid off, and the farm re-stocked. This stranger became the husband of Lily, the eldest daughter.
THE TWO MAMMAS.
FOR HENRY AND EDWARD.
"Tis strange to talk of two mammas!
Well, come and sit by me, And I will try to tell you how So strange a thing can be.
Years since you had a dear mamma, So gentle, good and mild, Her Father G.o.d looked down from heaven, And loved his humble child.
Thy first mamma died on board of the vessel which took her from Burmah.
At parting--
----She kissed her little boys With white and quivering lip; And while the tears were falling fast, They bore her to the ship.
And Abby, Pwen, and Enna went-- Oh! it was sad to be Thus parted--three upon the land, And three upon the sea.
Thy first mamma was buried on a distant rocky isle, where none but strangers rest. The vessel pa.s.sed on her voyage, and--
At length they reached a distant sh.o.r.e, A beautiful bright land, And crowds of pitying strangers came, And took them by the hand.
And Abby found a pleasant home, And Pwen and Enna too; But poor papa"s sad thoughts turned back To Burmah and to you.
He told me of his darling boys, Poor orphans far away, With no mamma to kiss their lips, Or teach them how to pray.
And would I be their new mamma, And join the little band Of those who, for the Saviour"s sake, Dwell in a heathen land?
Much do I love my darling boys, And much do they love me; Our Heavenly Father sent me here, Your new mamma to be.
And if I closely follow Him, And hold your little hands, I hope to lead you up to heaven, To join the angel bands.
Then with papa and both mammas, And her who went before, And Christ, who loves you more than all, Ye"ll dwell for ever more.
MRS. JUDSON.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
MELLY, ANNA AND SUSY.
There is nothing more pleasant than to see brothers and sisters, lovely in their lives, and in all their plays kind and obliging to each other.
Mrs. Jones" three little children were always noted for their good behavior by all the people in the village, and the school teacher said they were the prettiest behaved children she ever saw, and this was saying much in their praise, for her scholars were noted for very good behavior and promptness in their recitations. Mrs. Jones kept her children under a good discipline, but she always gave them time and opportunities for their pleasant plays. She would not allow them to a.s.sociate with vicious children, because "evil communications corrupt good manners," and she knew her children were as liable to fall into bad habits as any others. There were a few vicious boys in the village where she lived who always took delight in teasing and vexing the other children, and sometimes these boys would try some method to break up the children"s play.
One afternoon, there being no school, Mrs. Jones gave her little children permission to go into the lower back-room and spend awhile in play. Away they jumped and skipped along down stairs to the play room, with merry hearts and smiling faces. They had not been there a long time before they heard a very singular noise, which they did not know what to make of. But they soon forgot it, and continued playing with the same cheerfulness; very soon again they heard the same noise, which sounded like somebody"s voice. The children began to be a little frightened, and you will see them in the picture standing "stock still,"
while little Susy stretches her hand out to take hold of the post, and is in the act of running away. Molly and Anna put their fingers to their lips, and listened again to know what the noise could mean. Soon the noise was repeated, and away they flew to their mother"s arms in such a tremor that she felt at the moment alarmed herself. They told their mother what had happened, and all that night the children could not sleep.
It was ascertained the next day that one of the bad boys crept along in the back part of the yard where the children were playing, and by an unnatural sound of his voice made the noise that so alarmed the three little children. Susy, who was the youngest, did not forget it for sometime; and all of them were afraid to go alone into the lower room for many weeks.
This was very wrong in the bad boy; he might have injured the children at play so they would never have recovered from it. I have known young children to be so frightened as never to forget the impression all their life-time. How much better for the boy to have been like these good children, and joined with them in their pleasant pastimes. Never do any thing that will give sorrow and pain to others, but live and act towards each other while in youth, so as to enable you to review your life with pleasure, and to meet with the approbation of your Heavenly Father.
ARTHUR AND HIS APPLE TREE.
One summer day little William was sitting in the garden chair beside his mother, under the shade of a large cherry tree which stood on the gra.s.s plot in front of the house. He was reading in a little book. After he had been reading sometime, he looked up to his mother, and said:
"Mother, will you tell me what is the meaning of "you must return good for evil?""
His mother replied: "I will tell you a story that will explain it.
"I knew a little boy," she said, "whose name was Arthur Scott; he lived with his grandmamma, who loved him very much, and who wished that he might grow up to be a good man. Little Arthur had a garden of his own, and in it grew an apple tree, which was then very small, but to his great joy had upon it two fine rosy-cheeked apples, the first ones it had produced. Arthur wished to taste of them very much to know if they were sweet or sour; but he was not a selfish boy, and he says to his grandmother one morning: