Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile literature; Children's poetry; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile literature
She was only five years old when her mother died, and three months
afterwards her father, who had kept her with him by the kind help of a
neighbor, fell from a building where he had been working, and was so
badly injured that in a short time he died. He had his little girl with
him a few hours before his death, and explained to her as well as he
could that he was going where her mamma had gone, but could not take
her with him yet. She must be a good little girl; she had an uncle and
aunt and little cousins in Chicago, and they would take care of her and
love her if she was good.
Only a few days after that Lena started alone on her long journey. Her
uncle had telegraphed to “send her on,” and he would meet her at the
Chicago depot. There was a card tied around her neck by a ribbon, and
on the card was written: “Please take care of me.” There was a letter,
also, fastened to the same ribbon, which told Lena’s sad little story,
and asked the passengers to be kind to her, but to please not give her
any candy. She had a wee purse fastened to the buckle of her belt which
had nearly two dollars in it.
As for her ticket, it had been bought and paid for, and the conductor
had it in charge. Before night of that long day almost every passenger
on the crowded train had called on Lena, and her wee purse was filled
to its utmost capacity with shining quarters and half-dollars. She
herself made a great many journeys in the porter’s arms to the parlor
car, to visit with some ladies. And at last, as night was coming
on, and Lena’s eyes were beginning to droop, and the conductor was
considering how he could make her comfortable for the night, came a
lady and gentleman and begged to have her transferred to their sleeper,
where they bought a berth for her and put her to bed.
[Illustration: IN THE MIDST OF HARVEST.]
And all along the line little Lena found loving friends. I think her
father and mother in Heaven must have been glad to see how warm were
the hearts of even strangers toward their darling.
POSITIVE PEOPLE.
I WANT to call the attention of all Pansies to a statement made by
Benjamin Franklin in his story of his life. He says he tried to form
the habit of expressing himself always with great modesty. He was
careful not to use the word “certainly” or “undoubtedly,” or any of
those words which give an air of positiveness, when the subject was one
which might be disputed. He tried always to say, “It appears to me,”
or “If I am not mistaken,” or “I should think that,” etc. He declared
this habit to be of great use to him in persuading others to think as
he did, and that moreover it gave him a chance to learn a great deal
more than he would otherwise have had; for he said he had noticed that
people did not care to give information to those who acted as though
they already knew all that it was possible to learn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account