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Ji THE PRESBYTEFT>
For the Children
GOING ERRANDS.
I started on an errand,
And then that old Jack Frost
He came so fiercely after me
I really 'most got lost.
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And then he nipped my nose;
He pinched my fingers cruelly,
And then he pinched my toes.
He said: "You will be frozen,
You'd better turn right back;
I'll pinch you harder if you don't!"
That mischievous old Jack!
I said: "When I am sent from home
With something I must do,
Just try your very worst with me,
I'll go in spite of you."
?Pearls for the Little Ones.
MERLE'S FIRST LESSON.
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Merle had at last made up his princely mind to go to
school. He had reached the great age of seven years without
ever having to do anything that he very much objected
to doing, for neither father nor mother, grandfather
nor grandmother, uncle nor aunt opposed his
wishes and going to school was not one of the desires of
his heart.
He had gone the first day of the last year, after being
paid in advance, by his mother, with candy enough to have
made him too cross to live with for a week only that he
was so used to eating whatever he liked that a few
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while his father hired him to go by giving him a new
wheel. Merle started for school willingly enough, but
came home in an hour, declaring the teacher "no good,"
and studying was "too slow a game" for him, whereupon
his mother sighed and his grandmother gave him a quarter
of a pie, upon the supposition that children ought always
to be eating when not asleep.
Qf course Merle did not go to school after that, for
there was no one quite decided enough to insist that he
should, so 11 through the year he stoned the cats, tore
down birds' nests and raged through the house, making
himself a terror to those who were not blinded by love to
his faults.
But ore September morning he startled the household
by declaring that he should go to school and see what the
teacher was like, for there was no fun playing alone, and
he was tired of his own company. It happened that Miss
Elizabeth was not ot all like Miss Daisy of the year before.
Of course she had heard of Merle and upon his
abrupt arrival in the school room she began and ended
her study of him in about five minutes. She saw the untrained
goodness of his disposition and understood that
his generous, impulsive nature needed help and guidance,
and that he must, above all things, be kept busy. Wise
Miss Elizabeth. She said at once:
"Master Merle, will you be kind enough to pass those
papers for me?" At the next uneasy minute Miss Elizabeth
was ready with?
"Master Merle, can you draw some lines on the board
for me?"
b.
\N OF THE SOUTH. February 3, 1909.
At recess time, however, the irrepressible mischief that
filled his plump body welled up and over, and Merle grabbed
the hats from all of the small girls, threw them up
into a tree and was rushing after those of the little boys
to put in the same place. Miss Elizabeth was watching
for this minute and in a second was at his side, saying
very quietly:
"You would better get the hats for the girls, Merle."
Merle was not used to a tone of command, and so answered
emphatically: "I won't!"
, *'M,iss Elizabeth had very brown eyes that looked
steadily into Merle's gray ones as she lifted him toward
the tree.
"Up with you, my man," she said in her clear sweet
voice. There was no trace of anerer in her tone?indeed.
there was the least bit of a smile on her red lips as she
looked at the flushed defiant face of the lad. Now Merle
delighted in climbing, and Miss Elizabeth's strong hand
and stronger will controlled him, besides it was something
new to be called "a man," so he gathered up the
hats and threw them down with all the energy of his
young arm, but Miss Elizabeth did not appear to notice
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ed on the ground?almost on Miss Elizabeth's toes?
who said cheerily:
"You are a fine climber, Merle. I want to tell you a
story of a boy who climbed a great deal higher than that
to help a poor little bird caught in a tree." Miss Elizabeth
dropped upon the ground, encircled by a group of
attentive listeners. She talked beyond the recess hour,
knowing that Merle needed lessons in gentleness and
truth, with this, his first lesson in obedience.
At home that night Merle volunteered the information,
between great mouthfuls of meat and cake: "Miss Elizabeth
is a dandy. She knows how to treat a man."
SNOWBALL DOLLY.
One day when five-year-old Nettie Grey was invited
out to tea with her mother she was told she could take
any one of her dolls she pleased, if she would dress
and get it ready, herself.
Nettie was delighted and at once ran to her doll nursery
to pick out a doll.
Two were lying in bed, in their night-gowns, one
was sitting in an arm-chair, two more were on a sofa,
one was in a coach, and black Dinah was hv the tnv
cooking stove, just as if she were getting supper.
"Which one of you wants to go?" she asked; but the
dolls never answered a word. "I suppose, Dorothy,
it will have to be you, the way you are stretching out
your arms, but, if I 'member right, you didn't behave
the last time I took you. Got pudding all over your
best dress, and when I scolded, you just laughed at me,
like you always do, you bad girl." Just here she was
interrupted by something jumping in her lap. Not a
doll, oh, dear no? but a snow-white kitten?
"What do you want, Snowball?" she asked, stroking
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"Mew"! answered pussy.
"Do you want to go out to tea with mamma and
n:e?"