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August 21, 1912 I TH1 !
"I'm so glad wc moved here," she cried
silting down in her little chair beside her mother
and rocking very fast. "Just suppose we
in ver had moved f?ere and I had never met the
liitie girl ladyl"
"She'8 kind of sick," Esther went on, "not
really truly sick, but she has to stay out in the
hammock all the time and what do you think!
You know how Elizabeth and I liked to dress
up in your old skirts and play we were ladies 1
Well, the sick lady lies there and plays she is
n little girl She has made a doll house?the
dearest little thing, Mother! She made it out
of a candy box and she painted it with her
water colors and it has little ruffly curtains
up at the windows. Oh, yes, and she said she
was so glad when she saw me out in the back
yard because she had wished and wished for
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h reHiiy mue gin to come and help her play."
Esther stopped long enough to catch her
breath. "And that is not all, Mother," she
went on, "This must be the street of grownup
children. Do you remember that funny little
man with white hair who lives in the house
on the corner? Well, he's the most wonderful
person in the whole world except Santa Claus
himself. What do you suppose his whole house
is filled with? Guess, please, Mother dear."
i m sure l never could guess," answered
Iter mother. "You will just have to tell me."
"Well," Esther's voice was very impressive,
"it's full of dolls, all kinds of dolls, the sick
lady says, that he has brought from all the
foreign countries where he has traveled. She
nays it is just as good as studying geography
to look at his dolls and 1 should think it would
he lots more fun. He has all kinds of American
dolls, too, and she says the one he likes the
best is a funny little old one made of corn
husks that his sister used to play with when
she was a little girl. Aren't you glad now, that
we moved here?"
"I am glad you like it better," laughed
Mother. "I hardly think you will need Jim
and the radish bed."
"No indeed," Esther answered gayly. "I
have to go and find my penny dolls now. I
promised the little girl lady that 1 would bring
them out so she could see if her doll house
Was th*? rirrVkt oi?n " VI.- ^ ?1'? * '
-m ?~ qui, ai?&. j. nc KsUiiyrcyuiumailSl.
THE JOKE THEY PLAYED ON EVAN.
BERTHA E. BUSH.
Oh, Carl, I've thought of the best joke to
play I" Let's make Evan Conner think he is
invited to a party?a party at a girl's house?
and make him go. It would be such fun to see
him all togged up and to see how he'd act
when he found he wasn't invited at all."
"Oh, Harry, we couldn't 1"
"Yes, we could/ I'd borrow some of my sister's
best note paper?Bess will lend me anything?and
we'll write an invitation on that
And I can make my writing look just like a
girl's if I cramp my fingers and make it small.
And we'll sign the Russell twins' names to it;
they are always giving parties."
"But he'd find out that none of the other
hoys were invited and he'd think it was a sell."
?<Trr_n .? ....
?en, we ii write notes to ourselves, too,
*nd show him. Then he wouldn't guess."
Evan Conner was the most bashful boy in
school. He flushed a deep and painful red when
the teacher spoke to him; and it was rumored
in Room Six that if a girl should say anything
to him he would die of fright. That was why
}he joke seemed to the plotters so exceedingly
funny. Every boy in the room,? and a few
the girls?was told about it in strict confidence.
They all trooped into the post office to
watch Evan walk up to his father's box aid
PRESBYTERIAN Of THE 80
get the note. How they glorified in his flush
and start when he saw the address, and how
they winked openly at each other when Evan,
in consequence of that start, dropped the whole
pile of books he was carrying with a clatter.
When he stooped awkwardly to pick them up,
he dropped them again. The note fell on the
floor and Carl picked it up and brought it to
him.
"I've got one just like it," he said. Harry
likewise exhibited his ostentatiously.
Evan Conner was a head taller than any other
boy in his room at school, and he seemed never
1 1 ? .?
iu nuuw nuw lo manage nis long, tmn arms and
legs. His hair was auburn red and stubborn?
perhaps he never brushed it enough. His face
and hands were not always as clean as they
ought to have been. He was always outgrowing
his clothes, and his arms stuck out below his
sleeves and his thin calves from his trouser
legs, most ridiculously.
It would have been different if there had
been a mother at his home. It was going to
be different now, for an aunt had just come to
take the mother's place; but the boys and
girls did not know that.
Perhaps a part of the joke for Carl and Harry
was that it would put the Russell twins in
an awkward place as well as poor Evan. The
Russell twins were the prettiest girls in school
and the sweetest. Their house was the pleasantest
in town and their parties the "dandiest"?so
the boys and girls said. Mischievous
Carl and Harry had not been invited to the last
one, and it had left rather a sore spot in their
memories.
Evan had never been invited to a party anywhere.
It was in kindness to him that he was
not included, for every one knew how agonizingly
shy he was. But they didn't know that
the new aunt had said that very day, "Evan,
I think you ought to get out more among the
hoys and girls. It would be good for you. And
I shall speak to your father and have him get
you some new clothes right away."
He wore the new clothos to school that afternoon,
and his face and hands were shining and
his hair as carefully combed as that of Elbert
Jackson, the school dandy. The new aunt had
taken matters into her own hands. But to
wear new clothes to Room Six was an ordeal.
As he entered the room there was a great
epidemic of coughing, and every cough said as
plain as print, "Oh, do look at Evan Conner!"
The teacher stopped it, but she could not stop
their looking. The more they looked, the more
awkward Evan felt. He seemed fairly glued
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iu me uuor. ne sai ana wonaerea it ne ever
couid get.up. He tried his muscles furtively
sitting in the seat. Not one of them would respond.
When the teacher finally called upon
him he had to press with both hands on the
desk to lift himself up at all, and, of course, he
bungled over the recitation. He stammered,
crimsoned, stood awkwardly, as red as a beet,
and the dreadful coughing began again.
"If it's as bad as this to wear new clothes in
school, what must it be to go to a party?"
mougni r.*van, uespairingiy.
But he had to go. His aunt insisted and at
half-past seven o'clock, Evan, with just a little
of the stitfness of his new clothes worn off,
stumbled desperately toward the Russell house.
He had asked Carl and Harry to call for him,
but they both said they had to do something
before the party. The something was to gather
in an alley with all the other boys in the secret,
and run from street to street to gloatingly
watch Evan go down it.
Now Evan did not look half so bad as he felt.
The new clothes were handsome and becoming,
and it adds to one's carriage to be a head tal
I
V T H (966) 7 1
v ?
ler than the other boys, when you are dressed
as he was. The new annt had personally examined
him, and the most fastidious person
could not have found fault with his appearance.
But Evan did not know this, and it was in a
spasm of terror that he went up the stone
steps and rang the bell. All the boys had lined
up behind an adjacent stone wall and stood
ready to jeer and taunt when Evan came backBut
Evan did not come back. Edna Ruwell
J il a J? i t
upenea cue aoor ior mm in ner prettiest areas
and said something that the boys did not hear,
but which must have been very pleasant as she
led him in. Then the great house glowed all
over with electric lights, and through the windows
where the curtains were only partly
drawn were to be seen?to the amazement of
the onlookers?ever so many boys and girls in
party clothes. There were only half a dozen or
so?two boy cousins of the Russells and their
girl friends with their brothers?but to the astonished
watchers it seemed like a great number.
They flitted back and forth and laughed
and talked and seemed to be having the best
of times. They played games?delightful
games, such as were only to be played at the
Russels'. And later they all filed into the diningroom
and were served to ice-cream and cake
and candy and nuts?the mouths of the hungry
boys outside fairly watered to see them.
And Evan had forgotten all about himself
and his awkwardness. He was having the best
vi- J i? ?;? -i-- *
iiinu Ui inn II1C, nuu lie was lUUKiag positively
handsome. <
You see the girls of Room Six had not kept
the secret; and the Russell twins, who were
the sweetest as well as the prettiest girls in
school, had resolved that Evan should not be
put to shame. But they had not imagined what
a splendid guest he could be when once the ice
of his shyness was broken. After that they
asked him to every party they gave. ?What to
Do.
HONEST LITTLE DIOK.
in all my life I never saw so honest a little
cat as our Dick. He not only never stole himself,
but he would not allow anv other cat tn
steal if he could help it. The dear little fellow,
however, was strongly tempted once, and
came very near losing his good name.
One day the cook carried out a pail of nice
little frost-fish, and set it down in the yard.
Dick was there. Dick always was near by
when there were good things to eat. The cook
went back into the house, and Dick sat down
to wait for her return; and two of his especial
friends were at the window upstairs looking
down to see what "honest Dick" would do.
The cook was a long time coming back to
dress the fish; and all the while Dick kept
watch?now on the pail, now on the kitchen
door. At last he went somewhat nearer to
the pail, then nearer, then nearer. Ah! frostfish
smell so good. Dick's little nose almost
cried at the top of his voice for cook to return
quickly and save him from being a thief.
But she did not come. At last Dick put his
fore paws on the edge of the pail. Then he
looked at the kitchen door and cried again.
But the door did not open. So slowly, softly
a puw reaciiea aown in tne pail, liut it came
back with a jerk, empty, and its owner ran
around the corner of the house where he would
not see or smell those nice frost-fish any more.
He did not want to be a thief, and we believe
the little fellow never came so near it again.?
TAttle Folks.
I
Many Christians are like the Leaning Tower
of Pisa?as far gone from uprightness as it
is possible to go without falling over.?Sunday
School Timet.