Newspaper Page Text
28 THI
| The Family
NANNIE AND MOORE ON CHANGE.
By Annie Hamilton Donnell.
They had played grocery store and
barber shop and postofilce and all kinds
of store there are, even to a Chinese
laundry, Moore said, dejectedly. If
there only was a new kind!
"I know one! I know a new kind!"
exclaimed Nan, excitedly. "The name of
it is Stock Exchange. My brother Sam
went to one in Boston. Let's play Stock
Exchange, Moore!"
"All right, le's! What do they do at
Stock Exchanges, Nan? I never knew
they had 'em before.
"Nor me, either, till Sam said so. He
said they were splendid places. Come
on, le's begin."
"Begin how, Nannie Topping?"
"Why?why, that's easy enough. All
we've got to do is play exchange our
stock, don't you see?"
"Oh! Only what stock? Cows and
horses and things?"
"Ours isn't," laughed Nan. "Ours is
bunnies and bantams and fantails and
cats! Come on! You get all yours,
Moore, and I'll get mine, and we'll have
a Stock Exchange right in this corner
of the v'randa. It will be splendid! I
know what I want to exchange?my Silver
Seabright for your lop-eared bunny.
And you can have my brindled cat for
your white fantail. 'Course we needn't
stay exchanged, if we don't want to."
They scurried away to collect their
two-legged, four-tailed, lop-eared and
fantaiievl "stock," and presently the end
of the veranda was "a real live Stock
Exchange," Nan said. It was live enough,
anyway! The pigeons strutted and cooed,
the bunnies hopped this way and that,
and the little Seabright rooster crowed.
Only the "brindled cat" was quiet.
"Now we must have a?a?panic," Nan
said.
"What's that, Nannie Topping?"
"Why, I think it's a dreadful racket.
You fly around and wring your hands
and holler dreadfully. Sam says that's
what' they do" at Stock Exchanges, when
thoro'o Q nonl/k ?/* - * '? *
.uv.v ? ? |/?iiiv, .urn niiuw. my: nc said
they screamed right out! Come on!"
And instantly, in the corner of the veranda,
there was a panic. It brought
grandma's white cap to the window and
mamma's brown head to the door.
"Children! What in the world is the
trouble?" mamma cried.
"Nothing, mamma, only this is A Stock
Exchange, and there's a panic, mamma!"
Nan explained. "That is it!"
"I?should?say?so!" cried mamma,
gazing from the panic-stricken stockholders
to the panic-stricken "stock."
When she took in the meaning of it all,
she slipped back to grandma again, and
they laughed till they cried. Grandma's
* cap slid off from her beautiful whit? hnir
in the process.
"Oh, children, children, children!
What funny little things children are!"
laughed grandma.
But the best of this Stock Exchange
was that both warm, breathless little
"brokers" came out of the panic exactly
as well off as they went in. It isn't always
so in the Stock Excnanges, you
know.
X
" r
2 PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUTF
"I'm p-pretty w-warm!" gasped Moore,
"but I think panics are f-fun, don't you.
Nannie?"?The Weekly Welcome.
BY AND BY.
We shall read life's lessons better
In the blessed by and by.
When our Savior is the teacher,
And we see with tearless eye.
We shall miss no word nor accent,
Neither shall we lose the place,
When we read life's harder lessons
With our Master face to face.
We shall read life's lessons better.
We shall learn them one by one,
In the City of the Ransom'd,
Where the crown of life is won.
We shall know about thp crnssps?
Yes, the loneliness and tears;
We shall learn from God the meaning
Of the trials which fill'd the years.
There's a page within His volume.
Where our lcsses are explain'd;
A page we aft have studied
When our souls were sorely pain'd.
We shall read it over yonder?
How different it will be
When the light of Home shall guide ua
Our Father's thought to see.
LAME BILLY.
By Miss Z. Irene Davis.
icaiuci, i icci su surry ior mil}'. "
"And who is Billy?" asked the teacher.
"Don't you know Lame Billy?" he assed
in surprise.
"I have never heard cf him before^"
replied the teacher with au amused
smile. "Where does he live?"
"Billy has always lived here. He hasn't
always teen lame, out a year ago he
was taking a sled full cf us boys down
hill. There was a little chap just ahead
of us, and Billy steered out so as not to
run into him. In turning cm of the way.
onmiv 11.9 ?ieii ugiiiiisi a tree, ls
boys just rolled off in the snow, but be
fell againsi a stone, spra'ned his ankle,
and has net teen able to walk since.
He was the best scholar in school, but
now he can not go anywhere. His folks
are too poor to buy him a chair or pony."What
can we do for him?" asked the
teacher sympathetically.
"I have been talking with the boj?,
and wed like to do something for him.
His mother has to take in washing, and
they have no money left to buy anything
but the necessities," was the boy's reply.
"Well," asked Miss Clayton with her
kindly smile, "what do ycu and the boys
want to do?"
jusi men lour or live of the older boys
came in, and Thaddeus Smith replied by
beckoning them to come up to the teacher's
desk.
"Let's tell her about our plan," he
said with boyish enthusiasm. A bright
looking lad began in answer to Miss
Clayton's question.
"You see, teacher, there's a sugar bush
on every farm where us boys live. Every
spring the folks like to get together and
have a sugaring off. Us boys have planned
to lead in the affair this time, get
our mothers to bake some cake, invite
t. January 13, 1903.
the school, have speaaing, and charge
ten cents."
"Yes," said the teacher, becoming interested.
"but what has that to do with
helping Lame Billy to come to school?'
"Everything." replied Thaddeus. "We'll
take the money that the people pay us
and buy an Angora goat for him. We'll
fit him out with a wagon, and then he
can drive back and forth every day."
The little school ma'am clapped her
hands with enthusiasm. "Let me help,"
she laughed girlishly.
"Will you speak for us?" asked the
boys in concert, knowing that she was an
elocutionist.
"Yes." she consented, "but what shall
it be?"
"Ben Hur's chariot race," exclaimed
Thaddeus. and all the bovs were aereeil
It was being whispered about among the
little crowd, now growing, "she plays a.
mandolin, too." After a storm of requests
for a mandolin solo, Miss Clayton
promised that she would do the best that
she could.
"The children must help us out with
the singing," the teacher added. The
boys were all pleased with the suggestion.
As the days went by, arrangements
were forward toward making the coming
event a success in every way. The cold,
frosty nights ar.d sunny days made the
weather perfect for sap gathering.
At last the long-planned for night arrived.
To the city visitor, the sugar party
was a novel sight. In the light of the
full moon the boys ladled the sugar out
from the sap that was kept boiling in
the great kettle, swinging over the burnInir
TUa 1 1
uib iuc icui|juug lumues sum at
high prices. No wonder, for every purchaser
knew he might share his box of
cakes with some merry school girl.
When the money was counted up there
was found to be enough for the goat,
wagon, and some for the widow besides.
Lame Billy had heard there was to be a
sugar party at Thaddeus Smith's, but he
did net knew that the party was for anything
more than to have a gocd time.
The next day at neon as he sat looking
out of the window he called to his mother,
who was finishing out a washing in
the kitchen:
"Mother, do rnmo niiielr Ttio whAlo
school is inarching in through the gate."
Sure enough, as Billy's mother looked
out of the window the teacher of the
grammar grade knocked at the door and
the children filed in until the little cottage
was full. But what was that which
the beys were reining in at the front
gate? Soon came the explanation.
"Here's ycu goat and wagon, Billy,"
calleu the boys excitedly. "Get in for
we've come to take you to school." Billy
was so pleased that he could riot say anything.
While he was adjusting the new
spring seat, straightening the lines, the
teacher and the girls were making a
present of a well-filled purse to his mother.
"How can I ever thank you enough for
such kindness?" said the poor woman,
her eyes brimming over with tears.
Rill v ffroo fir on
? tuju; cu UJB UUVtJ LU IUO
pretty school house. The goat had been
well-trained and would go anywhere he
was told. The sick boy's excursions In
the fresh air were so good for him that
he soon recovered, but he found Nannette
and his wagon more and more useful.?
United Presbyterian.