Newspaper Page Text
September 15, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIA1
"There, and there, and there," cried the children,
pointing, and Mr. Darcy began picking up the crabs
with a shovel and tongs and dropping them back into
the wash-bowl. "Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen," he counted
as he discovered three crabs clineine to the cur
tains. "Where is the seventeenth?'
"I guess he's in my shoe," said Louis. Sure enough
Mr. Darcy found him there, and shook him out into
the wash-bowl, which he hastily covered with a geogranhv
hook-.
! j
. "Xow," he said; "get dressed; and after breakfast
thank those seventeen animals for spending the night
with you, and" then take them back to the creek and
throw them politely into the water."
So after breakfast, Louis and Joe, joined by Helen
and Eunice and Phyllis, took a pailful of crabs down
to the creek, and soon seventeen astonished crabs
were oacK witn tneir lamines, telling the story ot
their surprising adventures.?Children's Magazine.
MIGNONNE.
By Helen Elizabeth Coolidge.
Her real name was Henrietta, but this had seemed
too long, and so, by common consent, the much-loved
little girl had come to be "Mignonne" to every one
in the gay hotel at L . She was not spoiled by
all the attention she received, but flitted from one
group to the other like a butterfly, chatting as easily
with gouty old gentlemen and the lovely old spinstes
as with pretty young girls, or the mammas of
other little girls, less pretty and more shy than herself.
However, we never would have called her
'The Little Minister" if we had not seen and heard
her on that particular Sunday of which I write. I
should, in a preface, tell you that she was under the
care of a very sweet governess, her mother being
detained at home by grandmother's illness,, and papa
away in the distant Philippines on duty as one of
Uncle Sam's officers.
It was a beautiful Sunday and as the little church
with its cross-tipped spire could easily be seen and
reached, nestling in the valley the hotel overlooked,
there was reallv no excuse for the stav-at-homes.
Mignonne, dressed in white, with a sash to match
the blue of her eyes, and forget-me-nots in her leghorn
hat, and with her white-bound prayerbook tightly
clasped, went the rounds of that hotel, with words
like these:
"Don't you hear the church-bells ringing?" "Not
going to church? Oh, yes, do! Come with me; I'll
show the way." "Reading the papers? Oh! you
ought to read your Bible?it's Sunday!"
"Too sleepy? Well! God doesn't ever sleep because
lie has to watch that you don't get hurt."
"Roads too dusty for your pretty slippers? I'll
clean 'em for you when we get home." "Oh, come!
The hymns are so beautiful! Maybe they'll sing
'Jerusalem, the Golden!' Oh! oh!"
The Rev. Robert Ellis had cause for snrnrise
he crossed the churchyard that morning in seeing the
unusual procession of young and old, rich and poor,
who were making their way into the little ivy-colored
building, and who filled it to overflowing, as he saw,
wVi^n V>tc nlaz-o in Via olionool
..v. VIIOIIVV1.
K OF THE SOUTH. n
As he stepped into the pulpit, his MS. was tightly
rolled, and I noticed that it was never opened. Those
who knew him well said, however, that he had never
preached so well, so earnestly, so eloquently. Did
he gather inspiration from a pair of thoughtful blue
eyes, which, from the front pew, looked into his, and
can you tell me why his text was, "And a little child
qIihH 1f?or1 f liom V
THE GAME.
The car was crowded, but the two pretty girls who
entered it at Madison avenue had no trouble in getting
seats. They thanked the men who gave them
places, and immediately fell into an absorbing conversation,
so absorbing that one of them did not
look up when the conductor called for fares. He
glanced at her doubtfully, but after a second's hesitation,
passed on; it was almost beyond human possibility
to be certain of every one at the crowded
hour.
As they left the car, one of the girls turned to the
other triumphantly. "Another nickel in!" she exclaimed.
"Another nickel? What do you mean?" the other
asked, puzzled. .
Claire laughed, showino- li*>r nr^ttioc* "i
o / " O UtlllJ/ll.. J.
mean," she explained, "that that's five nickels I've
saved this week by free rides. Of course I don't
care for the nickels, but it's loads of fun to do it."
"But?Claire Ellis?it isn't honest!"
Claire laughed again. "What's the harm?" she
asked. "The company's far too rich. Lots of people
do it, only they don't own up."
"But T should think the conductor would catch you."
"That's just the fun of it?I've found out how. If
I think the conductor is going to ask me, I just smile
right into his eyes. They never insist when you do
that. Once, though, I did nearly get caught. I took
a big chance that time, for I'd been shopping, and had
spent every cent exceot a ten-dollar bill?and thp mn.
ductor was a grim old thing, who wouldn't know a
pretty girl from a cow! When he said, 'Fare, miss,' I
was scared for a second; then before I realized it, my
life was saved. The man who had given me his
seat and was standing just in front of me, said, 'I paid
for that young lady?I gave you two tickets.' The
conductor looked doubtful, but he couldn't be sure because
the car was crowded, so after an instant he wept
on."
"But, Claire Ellis?to let a strange man pay for
you!"
Clare flushed a little.
"Well, of course I didn't quite like it, but what could
I do?" she protested. "And I'm sure he was very
nice about it r??1v rii<-i ?* -fi
_ . ?...y ..X. V1IM ivvvp OLU1 IU^ cl I HIC fll ICI "
ward. I wouldn't have father know it for anything?
he's so fussy over some things. Don't you dare breathe
it to a living soul, Bess Harriman!"?Selected..
The baby was slow about talking, and his aunt was
deploring the fact. Four-year-old Elizabeth listened
anxiously.
"Oh, mother," she ventured at length, "do you
think he'll grow up English? We couldn't any of us
understand him if he turned out to be French!"- - ^