"PLEASE to get my china cup for me, Ann," Daisy said, coming in from
the "sweet out-doors," as she called it, where she had been trying to
read her new picture-book.
Ann was shelling peas for dinner, and did not wish to be disturbed.
"What do you want of your cup?" she asked crossly.
"I want to get a drink for an old man."
"Well, take the dipper."
"No, the dipper won't do; I must have my cup, and I'm in a great hurry,
a 'fearful' hurry," Daisy said, imitating her brother Tom.
"I can't be bothered with your notions," Ann said, making her fingers
fly very fast. "I'm in a hurry too; it's high time these peas were
cooking; besides, what old man is it? I don't believe your mother would
let you give a drink of water out of your cup to every old fellow that
came along if she was at home; like enough he's a tramp."
"No, he isn't a tramp; he's a 'siple. He told me so."
"A 'siple!" Ann said, bursting into a laugh. "What's that?"
"Why, papa read about them in the Bible. They are Jesus' servants, and
he wants folks to give 'em a good drink of cold water when they are
firsty."
[Illustration: DAISY.]
"Well, I can't help it," said Ann, laughing again. "I can't be jumping
up from my work all the time to wait on everybody. Take a dipper, if
you must give him a drink."
"Oh, dear!" cried Daisy. "I told you the dipper wouldn't do. It said a
cup; and I want my very bufulest one—that one with little birds on it.
Come! Do get it for me."
"Can't do it," Ann said, shelling peas with all her might.
Poor Daisy was hot and tired. She rested her elbows on the doorsill,
and her chin on her hands, and looked very despairing. Two great tears
came into her eyes, and at last she buried her face in her white apron
and began to sob just as grandpa came along from the garden.
"Tut! Tut!" said grandpa. "What's the matter with my pet?"
He sat down on the step, drew Daisy to him, and wiped her warm,
tear-stained face with his clean linen handkerchief. It took but a few
seconds to make grandpa understand what the trouble was; then he got up
and said:
"Come and show me where it is."
The sun came out again on Daisy's face, and with her hand tightly
clasped in grandpa's, she pattered along to the dining-room closet—not
tired a bit now.
Grandpa reached down the beautiful cup, then he got a pitcher and
filled it with good cold water, and they two went down the front walk
as fast as they could go.
When old Mr. Burton started out that morning to walk to the next town,
he did not know what a very long, hot walk he had undertaken. He was a
stranger, and was on his way to his son's house. When he left the cars,
the stage had gone. He was too poor to hire a carriage to take him
over, so he had to walk five miles in a burning sun.
As he jogged along, he grew very thirsty. He wished there was a spring
by the roadside, but there was none. He came in sight of a large white
house on the hill, and said to himself:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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