Newspaper Page Text
January 22. 1918 ] T H E P
them. Later we put up a tin box filled with
sunflower seeds, on a piazza pillar. They soon
found these, and showed little fear of any
one at the window. The next step was a box
attached to the window sash, to which they
readily came. This was a great pleasure to us,
and we learned much abcut their ways and
their varied conversations.
The next October, while food was still plenty,
a chickadee visited the tin box, giving us
a hint that he had a good memory, and that we
might expect his company in the winter. It
proved to be a severe winter, and the birds became
almost fearless. One day as one of them
was crouching on the piazza vine, I reached out
my hand toward him, with seeds, and he took
one. Again I tried it. He could not reach
the seeds, but picked my hand gently a few
times. Then he pinched it hard enough to
hurt. Finding the hand harmless, he hopped
upon it, and selecting a seed, tlew away to eat
it. That was five years ago, and each succeeding
winter we have had cickadees that fed
freely from our hands or lips. Rutternut meat
is their favorite dainty.
They visit us occasionally until nesting time.
Some of thenr have been very affectionate,
seeming to delight in standing on our heads
and shoulders, sometimes gently pecking our
cheeks or lips. One lovable little fellow always
looked up into our faces with the utmost
confidence before taking food from the hand
linon which he stood. Oftou he uttered n few
soft notes as he looked up, which seemed
touchingly like grace before meat. Some of
the birds are always shy, and snatch the food,
while others will calmly tuck a seed under their
feet as they stand on my thumb and proceed to
crack and eat it, with full assurance of safety.
One learns much of the individuality of bird"
in such an intimacy. In the spring, when the
migrating birds return, the chickadees often
show a funny jealousy, trying all their pretty
tricks to attract attention to themselves, while
we are watching the newcomers.?Presb.
ONE DAY AT A TIME.
"That's near enough," exclaimed Harry
Osborne, shutting his algebra emphatically
and picking up the evening paper. "There
are three or four problems that didn't come
out quite right, but I'll get Sid Thurston to
help me a little before class in the morning."
"Who's helping Sidney!" inquired Mrs.
Osborne, quietly, looking up from her sewing.
"SidT Sid never needs help, I guess. AlCpKrft
nnmaa ooo?r f a Inm ' ' f Kn Kav ran 11 f>i \ r**
vviugg v-uoj lu ujui^ inv uvj iv|/iivu^ * v
covering from his temporary embarrassment
as the well-worn explanation occurred to him.
"It was just so in arithmetic last year. There'd
always be some examples that the rest of us
didn't get?that is, after we got over in the
book?and Miss Winslow used to send Sid to
the board almost every day. Toward the last
she didn't even stop to ask if he'd done that
particular one, for he always had. Sid's got
a great head for mathematics, and no mistake.
You know, some fellows take to this thing or
that, like ducks to water. It's a kind of second
nature or something of that sort."
"You've been finding some problems that
j _ i:.ii _ 1 i
iiuuuieu you a utile aiuiusi evt?ry cvcum^,
haven't yon?" said Mrs. Osborne, shifting the
subject from the general to the particular.
'"There are generally one or two," Harry
ndmitted. "There have been more the last
month or so. Miss Winslow picked me up
wiee this term, when Sid didn't get time to
show me. Sometimes he's in a hurry, too, and
T don't quite understand."
"And every time this happens,* you lose
ground," replied his mother. "The thing you
RESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
don't understand this week adds one more to
the difficulties you will have to meet next
week. Isn't it likely that in the end the difficulties
will accumulate, until you will have
to come to a full stop, and go back to take a
fresh start?"
"I think I'll look over those problems
again," said Harry, taking up his book. "I've
been a little uneasy myself for a while past."
"In my girlhood days," said Mrs. Osborne,
"there was a boy in our neighborhood, whose
father died when he was sixteen, leaving to
him the care and support of his mother and
two younger sisters. He'd been intending to
work his way through college, but that had
to be given up?for a time, at least. He hired
to the farmers during the summer seasons, and
earned considerable money in that way; but
he kept on studying all the while, and generally
managed to be in school three or four
months every winter.
" IT.3 winter he was nineteen, he took a
school to teach 'over the Ridge,' as we called
it. It must have been fully three miles from
his home, but he trudged back and forth every
day through the deep snows the whole winter
long.
"People used to pity him, but he never seemed
to pity himself. T remember his being at
our house one Saturday, and mother's saying
something about his long, cold walk. I was a
little girl then, but T shall never forget how
he said cheerfully: 'Why, Mrs. Slocum, it's
only one day at a time.'
"I surmose he went. thmii?h enllece nn tViAt
principle, for he had little else to go upon. It
required more days in his case than with most
young men, for he had to earn money to pay
his term bills and provide for his mother and
sisters. But, taking one day at a time, using
it for what it was worth, making it the foundation
for another day's building, he finally
succeeded, and he has succeeded in everything
that he has undertaken, so far as I can learn."
No enterprise, unless it he a visionary one,
is an endless chain. Any reasonable undertaking,
whatever its proportions, has a beginning
and an end. Therefore, an honest day's
work, conscientiously bestowed at the right
place, leaves so much less to be done. Then,
another and another and another?the series
seems infinite, but there its an end somewhere,
and "one day at a time" will reach it.
In building for the future, make every day
a square hewn stone, firmly set, upon which
others may be laid in safety. Then let the day
offer what it, will of satisfaction and rational
enjoyment, accept it gratefully before the day,
and its blessings slip away into an irrecoverable
past.?The W'ellapring.
THE STORY OF GERHARDT.
Gerhardt, a German shepherd boy, was
watching his flock, which was feeding in a
valley on the border of a forest, when a hunter
came out of the woods and asked: "How far is
it to the nearest village?"
"Six miles, sir," answered the boy. "But
the road is only a sheep track and very easily
missed."
The hunter looked at the crooked track and
said: "My lad, I am very hungry and thirsty.
I have lost my companion and missed my way.
Leave your sheep and show me the road. I
will pay you well."
"I can not leave my sheep, sir," rejoined
fiprllfirdt "TVlPv will srrnr iitn tVio TrnnJo
and may ho eaten by the wolves or stolen hy
the robbers."
"Well, what of that?" queried the hunter.
"They are not your sheep. The loss of one or
two wouldn't he much to your master and I HI
I U T H (55) 7
give you more than you have earued in a
whole year."
"I can not go, sir," rejoined Gerhardt, very
firmly. "My master pays me for my time and
he trusts me with his sheep. If I were to sell
ray time, which does not belong to me, and the
sheep should get lost, it would be the same as
if I had stolen them."
"Well," said the hunter, "will you trust
your sheep with me while you go to the village
and get me some food, drink and a guide!
I will take care of them for you?"
The boy shook his head. "The sheep," he
R?irl "rln nnf Wnnw vnnr vni(?A nnrl"
"And what? Can't you trust met Do I
look like a dishonest man?" asked the hunter,
angrily.
"Sir," said the boy. "you tried to make me
false to my trust, to make me break my word
1o my master. IIow do I know that you would
keep your word?"
The hunter laughed, for he felt that the lad
had fairly cornered him. He said: "I see, my
lad, that you are a good faithful boy. I will
not forget you. Show me the good road, and
I will try to make it out myself."
Gerhardt then offered the contents of his
scrip to the hungry man, who, coarse as it was,
ate it gladly. Presently his attendant came
UD: and then Gerhardt. to his snrnrisp frmnd
that the hunter was the Grand Duke, who
owned all the country around.
The Duke was so pleased with the boy's
honesty that he sent for him shortly after that
and had him educated. In after years Gerhardt
became a great and powerful man, but
he remained honest and true to his dying day.
?Selected.
%
A r?r nxT-nr* r%/\?
il UliZiVJCiA JL/UU.
In one of the magazines, some one has told
the story of a clever shepherd dog, named
Prince, who is very fond of the horses which
belong to his master.
One day, we are told, a team of horses had
been turned out for exercise in a small field
close to the roadway from the fields to the
barns. Just beyond the road lay a bundle of
cornstalks which had fallen from one of the
loads brought up the day before. The horses
saw it, and wanted it, as they showed by their
longing glances and the stretching of their
heads over the fence in a vain endeavor to
reach it.
Prince, who had gone down to the field to
see his friends, stood watching them closely.
Presently he trotted off down the field to where
one of the fence boards had become loose, and
dropped down at one end. Slipping through,
lie went back to the bundle of stalks, seized
it, and dragging it along into the hole in the
fence, pulled it through, having considerable
trouble with it in so doing, and finally placed
it before the horses, who at once began eating
it. Prince stood by, panting, wagging his
bushy tail, and evidently highly pleased with
the whole performance.?Apples of Qod.
CLEANLINESS OF ANTS.
No creature is more tidy than an ant, who
cannot tolerate the presence of dirt on her
body. These little creatures actually use a
number of real toilet articles in keeping themselves
clean. A well-known authority says
their toilet articles consist of coarse and finetoothed
combs, hair brushes, sponges and even
washes nnd soap. Their saliva is their liquid
soap, and their soft tongues are their sponges.
Their combs, however, are the genuine article,
and differ from ours mainly in that they -ire
fastened to their legs. The ants have no set
time for their toilet operations, but stop and
clean up whenever they get soiled.?St. Nicholas.