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October 25, 1911 ] X H ? J
indulged, grew deeply interested in their litthe
German tutoress, as the Heavenly Father
meant they should. They visited the sick room
under the eaves, bringing sweet dainties and
flowers, and books, and offering them as delicately
as one might to a princess. Indeed they
were '' real folks,'' these bright-faced girls, and
they honored the brave, helpless invalid more
than any royal lady they knew of.
Then, with the fearless audacity of American
girlhood, they made their way into the artist's
studio and fingered and admired his dusty pic
tures, till he ceased to growl and felt a little
warmth at hig numb heart.
One day he heard the clatter of their foolish
high heels coming up the endless rickety stairway
with unusual haste and noise; immediately
the pretty philistines were upon him.
"Herr Rudolph," cried Julia, putting her
slender fingers over Jenny's mouth, that she
might have her uninterrupted say, "we've got
hold of the jolliest idea you ever heard of!"
Then seeing that her listener could make nothing
of her unbroken English,she began over
again in German, moving with cautious inaccuracy
among cases and tenses.
"Ton see, we think it is a shame that so few
people knew of your beautiful pictures, and as
you will never blow your own horn, we mean to
make it ring for you."
The artist still looked perplexed, and Jenny
in a great scorn of her sister's failures, took up
the explanation.
""We are going to have a reception, Herr
Schneider," she said, "and instead of saying
commonplace things, and looking stupid, we
want to have all of your beautiful pictures to
show our friends. Will you lend them to us?"
The fellow was sullen, but he was not stupid;
he saw at once what this kindness meant, and
he was moved by it; but his ungracious spirit
could not bring itself to accept it.
He thanked them in his brusque way, but
with more feeling than he had ever shown to
them, he declined their offer. People had refused
him patronage all his hard life, he said;
he would not take it from them now.
Then his new friends grew angry, and to his
surprise, thunder and lightning began to play
abont him.
"Herr Rudolph!" cried Julia, her eyes
ablaze, "you are a man of no feeling, a wicked
man! Here is dear little Pelicie working herself
ill to feed you and clothe yon, and keep
you from being turned out into the street, and
you?you do not care; you'd like her to be killed
at hard work!"
It did not occur to him to resent this impertinent
meddling with his domestic affairs; he
merely said "Feliciet" in a dazed questioning
way, and listened dumbly while Jenny told him
the story of Felicie's washing at the river; a
a story which the little washerwoman tried with
vain distress to interrupt.
At last the hard heart was broken; this new
kindness of the strangers and the revelation of
VllO Zillllrl 'a foifbfnlwACin
mao vixixu o auawixuajuvooj paticuuc oiiu uravcr^j
overwhelmed him, and the English-speaking
girls slipped away, leaving Felicie in his arms,
wiping away his hot tears with her short pet
ticoat.
The reception was a brilliant success, attended
by all the strangers in Heidelberg, by
crowds of students, and by many of the old
town's gravest worthies. Where had these
beautiful pictures been all this time, people
wandered, as they gazed at canvas after canvas,
cunningly disposed in artistic positions
about the rooms, draped with gracefully hangings
of various fashions, and "talked up" in
delightfully comical German by the pretty
foreigners. Half of them were sold before the
PB?8? VT?K1AN OF THE 8 C
evening was over, at the modest prices marked
on them by the artist.
"What is it girl?" asked Rudolph, as Felicie
pressed up to him Sunday morning. He
was sitting by his wife's bedside, with a new
desire, most awkwardly shown, to be kind to
her.
"Your hat, father," Felicie said shyly.
"You said, you know, that you would go to
Pastor Urbreck's chapel with me if God sent. ii?
help. He has sent it, father."
There was a struggle in the proud, unbelieving
heart, but only for an instant. "He has sent
it," said the artist, solemnly, rising, and taking
the little red, hard-worked hand. "I will go."
?The "Well-Spring.
A SURPRISE.
Teddy Thomas had been taken sick with
mumps?mumps on both sides of his face at
once. That was bad, of course, but his mother
said it wasn't as if it were scarlet fever. Teddy
didn't see how anything could be worse.
He was lying in bed, his face all snarled with
fretful thoughts, when he caught the sound of
his own name.
Ethel and Brother James had come into the
next room, and were talking softly. Teddy had
sharp ears.
"It doesn't do any good for Ted to be so
cross," Ethel was saying. "Mamma will he all
used np if he keeps on this way."
"You may be sure he will keep on," returned
James. "He is a regular haby!"
"I should think he'd have a little regard for
us,'' sighed Ethel.
"He doesn't think of anybody else?selfish
little pig," said James.
"I've always said I'd hate to have him sick,"
Ethel went on. "He doesn't know what patience
is."
"And he'll never learn," added James.
Teddy made an ngly face at the crack in the
door, and then caught his breath with a scowl.
Teddy lay quite still for a long time, thinking,
thinking. "I believe I'll do it," he thought.
"I can, I'm sure I can. How it will s'prise 'em!
They 'serve to be s'prised after talkin' so rbout
their sick brother, but I guess 111 have to.
Mamma didn't talk so. Mamma d'serves a
s'prise."
"When Ethel came upstairs and said: "Ready
for your medicine, Ted?" he answered with a
sweet "Yes" through his teeth, and the surprise
truly began.
A little later mama came in to change the
flaxseed poultice on his face, and she was evidently
astonished not to see the least flicker of
n fpnwn whilft hTia vm if
"Do you feel any worse?" she asked.
"Aches pretty hard," he answered, pleasantly,
not even wincing at the pain caused by
the slight movement of the jaws. She stooped
and kissed him on hig lips.'
"Mama's brave little boy," she said.
"Kind o' fun, after all, to be patient," he
thought to himself, as she went away. "Didn't
s'pose it would be."
James came up after dinner to bring a book
of pictures for him to look at, and Ted pluckily
outdid his other attempts at cheerfulness. He
had to pay for those smiles afterwards?oh,
how his jaws did ache! He couldn't help being
glad that James didn't come very often, for, no
matter how bad he felt, he was determined to
show plenty of grit when James was there.
It was when he first went downstairs that he
let out the secret.
"I wouldn't have believed that you would
bear an illness so bravely," his father remarked.
"You have been a little man."
I U T H (1015) 7
Teddy's eyes shone. "I thought I'd s'prise
you," he chuckled.?Emma C. Dowd, in S. S.
Times. *
THINGS TO TEACH CHILDREN.
Reverence for Authority.?The first lesson for
all to learn is obedience. It is fundamental. Too
often, perhaps, our rule over them is one 01 might
inKtpnd nf ricrlit Wn
? ~ ??c icai weir iunure to respect
our authority more than we fear their disregard
of God's laws. From the obedience to
righteous authority of man they must learn reverence
for God's rule.
Love of the Truth.?The love and study of
truth will make our children honest and truthful.
It will preserve them from error. It will lift
them above all crookedness. It will show them
the beauty and the deformity of things as they
should be and are. Teach them the beauty of
truth, and perfection of truth, by being truthful
in all your dealings with them.
Sacredness of Being.?Teach them the preciousness
of simple life, or even mere existence.
Teach them to not wantonly destroy any form
of creation, whether of God or man. The child
must not heedlessly destroy, without purpose,
everything it gets its hands on. It must learn
to preserve instead of destroy, to build up instead
of tear down. The wholesome curiosity
that impels children to tear apart to see how
things are fixed is not here totally condemned,
but this instince must be guided with care.
Dignity of Labor.?Teach them to work and
not be ashamed of it. Toil is ennobling, if we
put our heart in it; only spiritless toil is slavish.
This world must be fed and clothed, and we must
do our part. Teach children to shoulder this
burden with right good will, Teach them to
work. We like to do that which we can do
well.?Advocate.
WHY MARY WAS LIKED.
I read a story the other day about a little girl
named Mary, and I thought you would like to
read it, too, so here it is.
A queer old man once made a tea party for the
little girls in town; and when they had all come
and were gathered in his front yard, he offered a
doll for the most popular little girl, and asked
them all to vote which should have the prize. But
many of them did not know what "most popular"
meant. So he told them it was the bestliked
girl.
Then they all voted, and Mary was the one
who had the most votes and received the doll,
though no one could say that she was either the
prettiest or the cleverest of them all.
"Now," said the queer old man, "I will give
another doll to the one that first tells me why
oil lllrr, v?A >?
MA& imv 1'XUl J tilC UCSt.
Nobody answered at first. But presently one
of them spoke up and said: "It's because Mary
always finds out what the rest of us wants to
play, and then says, Let's play that.' "?Ex.
PURPOSE OF LIFE.
This is not so easy to teach or to learn. The
best we know is to trust God, believe him, and
know him as far as possible. To live like the
little birds live; to bloom like the ffowers; to work
like the bees; to live like Christ?just to live and
enjoy living. Work a little, play a little, know
a little, and believe, and love much.?Ex.
"He who would fight the devil with his own
weapon must not wonder if he finds him an over
match." There appears nothing incredible in
this statement, nor can it be said to be tinged
with exaggeration. Sin and punishment are like
the shadow and the hody?never apart.?Tillyrod
Morgan.