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Our Boys and Girls
THE GIANT WHO WANTED TO WORK.
"Please read me a story, mother," pleaded
little Edith.
"I would like to, dear, but I must finish the
ironing and then put the baby to sleep."
"I know you have a lot to do, mother, but
you will never let me help you," pleaded lit
tle Edith.
Edith's mother laughed. She knew that her
little girl was always asking to help, but she
did really think that Edith was not big enough.
She was only seven.
"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do," said
mother. "When I am rocking the baby to sleep,
T will read you a short story."
So mother read the story about the wood
cutter who did not like to work. This wood
cutter was so lazy that he went to a wise man
and asked for a giant to do his work for him.
The wise man gave him a giant, but told the
lazy man that he would have to keep the giant
busy, or else the giant would kill him.
The lazy man told the giant to cut down all
the trees in the forest. In five minutes the
task was completed.
"What is there for me to do?" roared the
giant.
The lazy man told the giant to build him a
city where the forest stood. In five minutes
the city was built.
"Find all the pearls in the sea." commanded
the lazy man.
In five minutes the pearls were in graet
banks by the sea.
" Quick 1 What is there for me to do?"
roared the giant.
The lazy man now become thoroughly fright'
ened and could think of no more work. Just
then he noticed his dog. "Take the curl out of
my dog's tail," he ordered.
The giant tried and tried, but the dog's tail
remained as curly as ever.
At last he said to the lazy man: "If you
will let me off this time I will never trouble
you again."
The lazy man was glad to let the giant off
and go back to his own work. He had had a
hard lesson.
Mother put the baby to bed and was just
stopping to pick up some scattered toys when
, little Edith caught her around the waist and
exclaimed: "I am the big giant. What is
there for me to do?"
Mother smiled. "Well, Mr. Qiant, you may
pick up the playthings."
Little Edith went to work with a will, and
soon all the playthings were neatly packed in
" their box.
"What is there for me to do?" roared little
Edith again.
Mother entered into the game and said: "Go
and get me a bucketful of chips."
"Here is your bucketful of chips. What is
there for me to do?"%roared little Edith in a
few minutes.
"I believe that is all," said mother.
"Quick!" roared little Edith, deep in the
game. "What is there for me to do?"
Mother looked puzzled. "Fold these tea
towels and put them in the cupboard."
"What is there for me to do?" roared little
Edith.
"The work is all done now," said mother.
She sank into a chair and pulled little Edith
into her lap. "My dear little giant, you will
have to take the curl out of th* puppy's tail."
Little Edith's face grew long, and she said:
"O mother, dear, I'm like the giant in the
story. I can't do that."
"Well, never mind, dear,'' said mother. "1
am very proud of my little giant, and I shall
call on her every day after this to help me
keep the house in order."
So every day after that little Edith played
the new game with mother and found that it
grew more and more fun as the giant learned
to do harder and harder things to help. She
even told the baby that just as soon as he
was old enough to play there were going to be
two giants in their house ? the kind of giants
that really like to work. ? Woman's Home
Companion.
GOOD MORNING.
Good morning, Brother Sunshine,
Good morning. Sister Song.
I beg your humble pardon
If you've waited very long.
I thought I heard you rapping;
To shut you out were sin.
My heart is standing open;
Won't you
walk
right
in?
Good morning, Brother Gladness;
Good morning, Sister Smile
They told me you were coming,
So I waited on a while.
I'm lonesome here without you;
A weary while it's been.
My heart's standing open;
Won't you
walk
right
In?
Good morning. Brother Kindness;
Good morning, Sister Cheer.
I heard you were out calling,
So I waited for you here.
Some way I keep forgetting
I have to toll and spin,
When you are my companions;
Won't you
walk
right
In?
? J. W. Foley, in New York Sun.
PENNY FORGET-ME-NOTS.
By Alice Montgomery Barr.
Jackie Sanders looked with shame upon his
dirty hands and feet, then straightway I12 went
in search of his mother.
"0, Jackie," sighed the mother when she
saw him, "I was hoping you were going to add
another penny to the forget-me-not account to
day, you had stayed clean so long!"
"I'm sorry, mother," the little boy admitted,
"but seems I just can't remember things as I
should."
"I think, perhaps," interrupted Father San
ders, "if we would change our penny account
it might work better."
"How, father?" asked Jackie interestedly.
"Well, suppose instead of putting a penny
in our forget-me-not box every time we went
through the day remembering the things we
were told to do and keeping our resolutions
as we should that we put in a penny every
time we forget anything."
"I ? I guess that might make a difference,
father," answered Jackie; "but I'm afraid the
forget-me-not penny bank would get all my
pennies."
The forget-me-not bank was a little metal
bank that Jackie's best-beloved Aunt Sara had
given him when he was a little boy, and while
he was still a little boy the bank was about his
most treasured possession.
Almost ever since he could remember he had
been putting pennies into the little bank for
the things he did that pleased his parents. For
instance, if he went all day without crying,
they gave him two penniies to put in the bank;
if he went all day without fussing, one penny
went in ; and when he went all day without soil
ing his clothes, three pennies was the reward.
And now father was suggesting that tlic old
method be done away with ami a new one in
stalled; and since both his parents agreed to it,
naturally he must.
Realizing that the pennies that would go into
the bank under the new system would come
from his own pocket, Jackie went to bed that
night feeling very blue, and perhaps he had a
right to, because the next morning before he
got away from the breakfast table he realized
that he had forgotten a very important thing
which he should have done ? he had forgotten
to wash his face ? and before night came down
again he had left off two otlier important
things; consequently that night three pennies
from his own savings went into the bank.
"I say, ilad," he said presently, "what shall
we do with the money we contribute to the for
get-me-not bank?"
"I think, since it's all due to our careless
ness," answered father, "that we should give
the money to some charitable cause."
At first the little forget-me-not bank flour
ished. Every, day it seemed to Jackie Lhat it
called on him for every penny he could beg
or earn, but by and by lie began to get up in
the mornings thinking about the things he
was going to do that day. He began to listen
to the things that mother and father told him
to do and then doing them, and after a while
father noticed that the little bank was growing
slim.
Twice flowers had been paid for out of it
for the charity ward in a big hospital, once it
had bought a chicken for the washerwoman's
birthday, and three times it had beeij emptied
for missions ? all for good causes. But some
how Jackie thought he'd rather do these things
differently; so he kept remembering and think
ing and doing until the little bank was com
pletely emptied.
"I say," exclaimed father when he discov
ered the condition of the iittlc bank, "I guess
it's time we were going back to the old meth
od. It seems that our little boy never forgets
anything any more, and he's nice and clean
when supper time comes and so polite I'm al
most seared of him myself."
Jackie slipped onto his father's knee and
looked up into his face lovingly. "I just
couldn't let auntie's gift be filled with my for
get pennies, father," he said slowly. 4,Vou
know that little bank was a forget-me-not
bank, and I think I've learned a lesson by it."
"!So do I," laughed the father pleasantly.
"In fact, I'm most sitfe r.iy little boy lias
learned a great lesson; so we'll lay aside the
custom of banking our forgotten duties and
keep it just for love's sake."
And that night Jackie felt a:? though he was
the happiest little boy in the world, for no
longer was the little bank a reminder of some
thing he had left undone, though it was a
long time before he ceasc<| to save his pennies
in the forget-me-not bank.? Christian Advo
cate.