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Written for Burke’s Weekly.
I-WISH AND I-WILL.
A STO R Y F0 R BOYS.
13Y FANNY FIELDING.
WISH and I-will, two boys,
were distantly related.—
They lived with their
grandmother in a right
qjrm'f* nice little cottage, and
were quite young when it began
to be observed that there was a
ra@| wide difference in their ways of
/W doing things.
One snowy morning they sat by the
fire warming and chafing their fingers,
for the cold was very intense.
“I wish I could get warm f’ said the
former. “I never saw such weather ; it’s
past all endurance. I wish the winter
was over, or at any rate that it would be
come milder and pleasanter, so that peo
ple could have some enjoyment. Getting
toes and nose nipped is no such fun.”
His cousin was looking quite blue, too,
and his teeth were' chattering.
“Yes, it’s pretty bad,” he answered;
“I, too, am tired of being cold ; I will get
warm one way or another.”
And so I-Will ran out into the snow,
took an axe and chopped a quantity of
wood, thinking to sit by a blazing hot
fire all the rest of the day. But, indeed,
he became so animated with the exertion,
which sent the blood bounding through
all his veins, that when he went carrying
the huge armfuls of fuel into the house,
his cheeks glowed and his eyes glistened
as if they had been in a midsummer sun.
By-and-by it Avas all piled in the corner,
and he was ready to work at his plan of
building fires the size to roast an ox, but
he found that he was thoroughly warm
ed already, and in a better way, too.
I-AV ish was glad to see the great big
logs heaped on, but he didn’t thoroughly
enjoy it, because when any one suddenly
opened a door or window, his teeth went
off to chattering again.
U I wish these lessons were learned,”
’Aid one of these boys, one night. The
tasks for the next day were much harder
than usual. “It’s a shame,” ho continu
al, “to have given us so much to learn,
md no matter how difficult ft is, the
teacher 11 punish us just the same if we
don t knoAv every word.”
You could hardly was in
earnest, for in spite of all his grandmoth
u s advice, and somebody rise’s example,
there he sat dangling his feet, playing
hizily with the cat, or casting sour or
) awning looks into the fire.
BURKE’S WEEKLY.
I-Will said to himself—
“ The lessons are terribly hard, that’s
just the truth, but that thought doesn’t
make them a bit easier, considering
they’ve got to be learned. I know a boy
in the school no bigger than I am who
has been through this most difficult book.
What’s the matter with me, that I can’t
doit? I will.”
And he did learn his lessons then and
get through the book in the course of
time. But I-Wish was punished next
day, for he had desired with his lips, but
not with his heart or his head.
At play-time, one day, a boy from the
city brought out a fancy kite to sail. It
was made of many colored papers, and
took the eyes of all the other boys.
I-Wish longed for it, as it floated off
like a gay banner in the air. Ho would
“Give anything for one.”
“You can make one,” said I-Will;
“that’s what I intend to do. I see how
it is done, and I wouldn't miss having one
for a great deal.”
“Makeone? How? Indeed I couldn’t.
I only wish I might, but I shall never
have one, if it depends on that.”
I-Will ran to the nearest shop, bought
his colored tissue papers, and was back
before the school bell rang. When he
went home that evening and learned his
next day’s lessons, he fashioned his kite,
which was rather an improvement on the
one that had been so much admired.—
By-and-by he made one for I-Wish, and
for some other boys, too ; but, after all,
they were only the boys who had kites
that were made for them, and I-Will was
the hero in the school, because ho was the
one who could make them.
I-Wish was a little the older of the two,
I might have told you, and ought to have
been able to do at least as much for him
self.
As they grew up, I-Will was always
ahead of I-Wisli —ahead in studies, in
work, in the estimation of the community.
I-Wish was just as amiable as the oth
er; that is, ho was just as patient and
forbearing, sometimes tamely so, it was
thought, yet, altogether, people said he
was a good fellow.
Sometimes I-Will offended persons a
little, it might be, by his off-hand busi
ness way, though he never intended to
be rough or unkind, and pretty soon they
found this out, and thought he and his
ways “wore better,” as they said, than
the inoffensive, insipid disposition and
character of I-Wish.
When they came to manhood and went
off to live, one said, with a sigh :
“Oh! if I only had -an establishment
like Such-an-ono, (naming a rich man in
tho neighborhood,) or if not that, some
thing better than these bare Avails and
this ovcrgroAvn Avilderness around!”
“ Oh, ’ said the other, “mine is, I find,
in the same condition, but l love a pretty
home as Aveli as yOu do, and I shall have
it.”
“I Avish,” said the first, “that Stephen
Girard Avas obliged to give me one-fourth
or one-half of his fortune !”-
“I don’t Avant any man to give me any
thing,” said I-Will, “but labor and the
roAvard of labor. Wi th these strong arms
and a good resolution l ain better endow
ed than Stephen Girard could endow me.
But I’m like you, money, enough of it, is
a very desirable thing; so much so that I
intend to haA T e a competency if I live and
have health.”
I-Will Avent to Avork and cleared around
his house. He rooted up the Aveeds —he
planted trees and floAvers —he put on fresh
clean paint, inside and out; then his fam
ily helped him to keep things nice there,
and he made the fields all fertile, and
reaped and sold loads of grain. Golden
harvests, in more senses than one, came in.
I-Wish, poor felloAv ! got Avorse and
worse. The longer he Avisfied, the more
his property Avent to decay. The weeds
overrun his fields, and the damp and mil
deAv broke down his walls. He amiably
Avished they wouldn’t. By-and-by the
sheriff came and sold off the little pro
perty in his cheerless house and vacant
barn, and poor I-Wish, the little boy of
so many bright visions, died at last in the
alms house.
Norfolk , Va.
♦♦♦
Will you give me them pennies
noAV?” said a big neAvsboy to a little one,
after giving him a severe thumping.
“No, I won’t,” rejoined the little one.
“Then I’ll give you another pounding.”
“Pound aAvay! Me and Dr. Franklin
agrees. Dr. Franklin says : ‘ Take care
of the pence and the pounds Avill take care
of themselves.’ ”
JSST There is deAV in one floAver and not
in another, because one opens its cup and
takes it in, Avhile the other closes itself,
and the refreshing drop falls to the earth.
God rains wisdom and mercy as Avidcly
as the deAVS, and if avc lack them it is be
cause Ave Avill not open our hearts to re
eeive them. They tall upon all alike.
- ——
miT Mother —“ Here, Tommy, is some
nice castor oil, Avitli orange juice in it.
Doctor “Noav don’t give all to Tom
my ; leave some tor me.
Tommy (Avho had tasted it before) —
Doctor is a nice man, ma; give-it all to
the Doctor.”
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