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14 THE PRESBYTERIA
For the Children
QUESTIONINGS.
Gnrl is ill heaven, and does He know
When I am doing wrong?
Yes. child. He does; He looks at thee
All day and all night long.
Clod is in heaven, and would He hear
If I should tell a lie?
les, 11 tnou saiust it eer so low
He'd hear it in the sky.
God is in heaven, and will He hear
A feeble prayer like mine?
Yes, little child, thou needst not fear;
He's listening now to thine.
God is in heaven, and can I go
To thank Hint for His care?
Not yet, hut love Him here below,
And thou shalt praise Him there.
WHO STOLE THE MUD MARBLES?
By Hilda Richmond.
"That George Cline is the meanest boy that ever'
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mamma? He stole all our mud marbles that we had
in the sun to dry."
"Yes, and he told a story, too," added Margaret.
"After he stole them all he said he didn't."
"Children," said their mamma in a grieved tone,
"don't you know it is very naughty to say such things?
He could make all he wanted in a little while. I am
sorry my little boy and girl are so hasty."
"But, mamma, he did take them," cried the children
together. "He was the only person in the yard while
we were taking our naps, because Mark saw him. He
just did it to tease us."
Their mamma said nothing more about the lost marbles,
but told the children to make some new ones and
bring them up near the house. Very soon Gerald and
Margaret were having a fine time rolling balls in their
hands, and presently on a clean board was a long row
of them ready for the sun to bake. This time they
put them close to the window, and their mamma prom
iscd to watch them as she sat sewing. Grandma
came in with a new game just then, and they wanted
to play it on the sitting-room floor.
"How showery it is!" said grandma, as the big clouds
rolled up overhead. "This will bo the third shower
for the day."
But Gerald and Margaret never heard the rain as
they played with the new game. Even when mamma
called they were so busy that she had to speak twice.
"Come here, children," she said. "I want to show you
something."
1 hey ran to the window just in time to see one of
the marbles fall to pieces, when pelted by big drops of
rain, and sink down in a little, dirty heap on the board.
Then another and another followed, till the last one
was just a patch of mud on the board. Then more
rain came, and soon the board was washed clean and
white.
"I wonder!" cried Margaret with round eyes.
"I know that was the way, for it rained while we
N OF THE SOUTH. March 3. l"9<>9were
asleep," said Gerald. "Just as soon as the rain
is over, may we tell George how naughty we were?""
he asked penitently. "I'm so sorry."
Mamma nodded, and in a little while the three were
playing together happily. Now whenever either is
hasty, some one only has to say, "Mud marbles," and
everything changes. The children never forgot the
lesson, and they say they never will.
PINKY'S PREFERENCE.
Most wild animals stoutly resist all our well-intentioned
efforts to bring them up in dooryard ways, and
take to the woods again with the first opportunity. . I
have tamed squirrels; hut sooner or later every one of
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........ ..ao c?c?tjjcu u) me wiuis. l have never known
but one wild animal that wanted to he domesticated,
that refused to stay in the woods when taken there;
and this was a little 'possum named from the color of
his long nose, Pinky. *
He was one of a family of nine that I caught, several
springs ago. and carried home. In the course of a
few weeks his brothers and sisters were adopted by
admiring friends; but. Pinky, because he was the
"runt," and looked very sorry and forlorn, was not
chosen. He was left with me. I kept him?for his
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?v..v.. u?u?dim icu mm on milk until lie caught
up to the size of the biggest- mother-fed 'possum of
his age in the woods. Then I took him down to the
old stump in the brier patch where he was.born, and
left him to shift for himself.
Being thrown into a brier patch was exactly what
tickled "Bre'cr Rabbit"' half to death, and any one
would have supposed that being put gently down in
his home brier patch would have tickled this little
'possum still more. Not he, I went home and forgot
him. But the next morning, when breakfast was preparing,
what should we see but Pinky curled up in
the feather cushion of the kitchen settee fast acWr.
He had found his way back during the night, had
climbed in through the trough of the pump-box, and
had gone to sleep like the rest of the family. He
gaped and smiled, and looked about him when he
awakened, altogether at home, but really surprised that
morning had come so soon.
He took his saucer of milk under the stove as if
nothing had happened. We had had a good many 'possums,
crows, lizards, and the like. So, in . spite of this
winsome show of confidence and affection Pinky was
borne away once more to the briers. He did not creep
in by the pump-box trough that night. Nothing was
seen of him, and he passed quickly out of our minds.
Two or three days after this I was crossing the backyard,
and stopped to pick up a big calabash gourd that
had been on the wood pile. I had cut a round hole,
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.u.8w man a s??ci uuimr, in me gourci, intending
to fasten it up for the bluebirds to nest in.
It ought to have been as light as so much air, almost;
but instead it was heavy,?the children had Piled it
with sand, no doubt. I turned it-over and peeked into
the hole; and, lo! there was Pinky. How he managed
to squeeze through that opening I don't know; but
there he was, sleeping ^way as soundly as ever.?St.
Nicholas.