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6 (126) THE 1
Our Boys
BE TRUE.
Listen, my boy!
I've a word for you;
Ana tms is the word:
Be true, be true.
At work or at play.
In darkness or light,
Be true, be true,
And stand for the right.
And you, little girl?
I've a word for you.
'Tls the very same word:
Be true, be true.
For truth is the sun,
And falsehood the night.
Be true, little maid.
And stand for the right. ?Selected.
THE STORY OF JOSEPH.
BY SARAII N. M'CREERY.
"I am not going to let Guy Loring have a
single ride on my pony, I don't care if he is my
cousin," said Lawrence Austin with a frown.
"T rhinlr if u'nnlH ho nmo tn talce him ? ride. "
said Mrs. Austin. "You will enjoy your pony
more if you use liim to give other people pleasure."
"I don't want to do anything nice for Guy
since he broke my knife. He did it because he
was mad at me, and now I don't care for him
and I am not going to let him have a ride."
Mrs. Austin laid aside her sewing. "I will
tell you a story if you would like to hear it," she
said.
"I would love to hear a story," said Lawrence,
as he brought a stool and seated himself
at his mother's knee.
"Many, many yearn ago there lived a lad
named Joseph. His home was in a city called
Hebron, in the land of Palestine. Joseph was
born when his father, Jacob, was an old man,
and for that reason the father loved him very
much. He gave Joseph a coat of many colors,
which was a robe that came almost to the ground,
and the person who owned it was supposed to
be of some importance in the family. The fact
that the father gave Joseph this coat of many
colors and loved him so much made the other
brothers very jealous. In those days people believed
in dreams; we do not believe our dreams
come true now, but those people did. Once
Joseph dreamed that he was in a field binding
sheaves with his brothers, and his sheaf stood
upright and the brothers' sheaves bowed to it.
A second dream was that the sun, moon, and
eleven stars bowed to him. The brothers thought
these dreams meant that some day he should rule
over them, and they were still more jealous of
him and disliked him more than ever."
"I don't see how one brother could dislike another.
I just love my brother, Frederick," remarked
Lawrence.
"Jacob owned a great many flocks," Mrs.
Austin went on, "and the sons, ail but Joseph,
who stayed at home with his lather, tooic care
of them."
"My father is going to let me help take care of
his cattle when T get big," interrupted Lawrence.
"These brothers had the flocks near Shechem,
and Jacob had not hpard from them for some
time, so he sent Joseph, who was then seventeen
years old, to visit the brothers and see it every
thing was all right with them. "When Joseph
reached Sheehem, he was told that his brothers
had gone farther on to Dothan. Tie was not
willing to return home until he had some news
for his father, so he went on to Dothan. It was
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
and Girls
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?juite a long journey from Shechem to Dothan
for a seventeen-year-old lad, and, of course, it
had to be made on feet.
"When the brothers saw young Joseph coming
they said, 'Behold, this dreamer cometh.' Then
they began to plan to kill him; they thought they
could say that some wild beast had eaten him.
One brother, Reuben, was kinder than the others,
and lie suggested that Joseph be cast into a pit,
but not killed. Reuben thought of the old father
at home, and he hoped he could rescue Joseph
and send him on his way safely. Joseph was put
into a pit, and a little later, as the brothers were
eating a meal, a party of Ishmaelites came by on
their camels. They were on their way to Egypt
to sell spicery, balm and myrrh. Judah suggested
to the other brothers that Joseph be sold to these
Ishmaelites, then he would not starve in the pit,
and they would not be responsible for what was
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aone 10 mm laier. i ne Dargain was soon made,
and the brothers were given twenty pieces of
silver for Joseph."
"I wouldn't want any relatives like those
men." Lawrence declared soberly.
"Reuben was not with the other brothers when
they sold Joseph, and he was very sorry when he
returned and did not find him in the pit. The
brothers had kept Joseph's coat of many colors,
and they killed a kid and dipped the coat into
the blood and took it to their old father. 'This
have we found; we know not whether it be thy
son's coat or not,' they said. Jacob knew the
coat at once, and he believed a wild beast had
killed his son, and he wept bitterly.
""When the Ishmaelites reached Egypt, they
sold Joseph to an officer of Pharaoh, the king.
Joseph was a good lad, one who could be trusted,
and he rose from one place of honor to anoth.r
in the king's hosehold. He had hardships, too,
but he was brave through them all. Pharaoh had
a dream that Joseph told him meant that there
would be a famine in Egypt in seven years, and
that much food should be stored away in the
seven coming years while there was plenty.
Pharaoh believed Joseph, and made him ruler
over all the land of Egypt, and that was the
next thing to being king. Joseph had much
grain stored, and in seven years the great famine
came, just as he had said it would. The people
came from long distances to buy food, and among
them was Joseph's brothers. These men did not
know that the man with so much power in Egypt
was the little Joseph whom they had sold years
before, but Joseph knew his brothers. lie did
not say they had been cruel to him, and for that
reason could have no corn, but he filled their
sacks to the brim and did not take a cent of the
money they had brought to pay for food. They
came for corn a second time, and Joseph told
them who he was; then he had Jacob and all
the family come to Egypt to live. Jacob was
delighted to find the son whom he thought was
dead."
"Joseph was a good man," said Lawrence,
thoughtfully.
"Yes," answered Mrs. Austin, "he was looked
up to in Egypt by everybody; but the thing I
liked best about him was the way he treated his
brothers. ITe did not say, 'They were unkind
to me, and I shall not do a thing for them,' but
he was glad to do a good act in return for a bad
one. That showed Joseph was really a manly
man, with a big, kind heart. He must have been
kind to* others as a boy to make such a kind
man," Mrs. Austin finished.
^ T H [February 7, 1912
"I will take Guy a ride on the pony this very
day," said Lawrence, "for 1 want to be a kind,
good man like Joseph, and I guess 1 had better
begin now."
"I am glad the story of Joseph has helped you
to be kind to Guy," said his mother softly, as
she picked up her sewing again.?llcrald and
Presbyter.
GIFTS.
BY BELLE C. HARRINGTON.
I know a family whose Christmas giving last
year was unique, and I have wondered whether
there are not enough others similarly situated to
warrant me in telling the story.
. This family, whom I shall call the Graysons,
lived in a suburban village abouve twenty miles
from the large manufacturing city where Mr.
Grayson carried on his business. Their country
home was a popular resort for a host of city
friends, and every year they gave and received
many expensive presents. Last year, however,
Mr. Grayson's business affairs were in that
critical state which precluded unnecessary expenditures,
and after a family consultation it
was decided that the Graysons must deny themselves
the pleasure of Christmas giving for that
year.
The family were dispersing rather suddenly,
when a quick-witted daughter of the house
spoke:
"But, mamma, our friends are always raving
over the luxuries we have here in the country.
Why can't we send them some of the things we
have right here? They have plenty of the sort
we usually send, anyhow."
They looked at one another doubtfully for a
moment; then the plain common sense of the
snsrerestion nrpvailed and there bes?nn at nnee the
planning for the happiest Christmas the Graysons
had ever known.
To a group of Tom's college friends too far
away to go home for the holidays they sent a
"spread"?turkey and biscuits and piekles and
doughnuts and cake, all prepared with Mrs.
Grayson's incomparable skill, and quite good
enough to make the boys her loyal subjects forever.
To some of their friends in the city they sent
a couple of bottles of their delicious Jersey cream
gaily tied together with bows of red ribbon, and
bearing the greeting, "May the cream of all
life's joys be yours.
Ben's school friends were engrossed in the fad
of collecting totem sticks; so he betook himself
4.^ 4 U.I.J xl x ? 1
l<j me uce, seieuieu me musi curwusiygnarled
limbs he could find, spent the evening in
carving grotesque heads upon each, and had a
dozen most acceptable gifts for his comrades.
Fresh eggs were a luxury at that season, and
were deemed worthy a place among the gifts.
Gracefull shaped baskets, purchased at the novelty
store for a dime, were covered with fluffy
tissue paper in delicate rainbow shades?pale
yellow and lavender and pink and blue; and
the very whitest of the eggs were piled within
like dainty pearls. One of the baskets was sent
to an invalid, and another to one of Mrs. Gray:
son'8 girlhood friends, to whom she wrote a
note reminding her of the time when as little
girls they hunted hens' nests together.
TllA Hflllfirnfpr Af tVin Vinncn rnmnmKnrn^ onnVi
of her girl friends with a jar of dainty cold
cream made from a recipe handed down in the
Grayson family for generations. * Upon each
jar she sketched with her water colors a Japanese
maiden, and beside the picture in simulated .
Japanese lettering the old saying, "Soft hands
become a ladye fairc."
Mrs. Grayson was noted ^ar and near for her
salt-rising bread; so they sent two of the huge,