Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile literature; Children's poetry; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile literature
It was now lunch time; then came Sabbath-school. The men and boys met
in the chapel, but as it was not large enough to accommodate more, the
women’s, girls’ and the infant class met elsewhere. Isgoohe, a member
of the senior class in the high school, took charge of the second of
these. After going over the lesson, she began to ask personal questions:
“Now, girls, what have you done for Jesus this week?”
A hand was raised.
“What is it, Marta?”
“I let Funduk have my comb for Jesus’ sake. It was such a nice one, I
did not like to have her use it; but Miss Goulding told me I ought to
be kind to Funduk.”
Then Armenoohe said that going home from school one day, a girl she
did not know very well called out, “Armenoohe, run and get me another
clog; mine’s broken.” (The clog is a wooden sole with a heel at each
end, as it were, and a leather strap to slip the foot into. These heels
are from one to three or four inches in height, and raise the foot well
out of the mud or snow.) “At first,” said she, “I thought that it was
no affair of mine, and that the girl was rather impudent to ask such a
thing. Then I remembered what you told us, Isgoohe, about not pleasing
ourselves; so I asked her which was her house, and got the clog and
brought it to her, and she never even thanked me!” (It was not so very
long since Armenoohe herself had learned to say “thank you.”)
Two or three others told their little efforts at denying self; then the
bell rang for the afternoon service.
In the evening I invited any who wished to talk with me to come to my
room. Soon afterward Rakel came. She was rather a pretty girl, with
bright red hair; she was full of fun, and a dreadful tease. She dropped
on to the hassock at my side in a bashful sort of a way.
“Was there something you wanted to say, Rakel?”
“Yes,” came the whispered answer; “I want to love my companions.”
I enlarged a little upon the duty and privilege of loving others,
and then waited for her to speak; but she was silent so long, that I
finally asked if there was anything else she wished to say.
“Yes; how can I love those who make me angry?”
Well, that was a problem, to be sure! But then, the dear Saviour can
help us solve every problem, so we knelt and prayed, both of us, for
his help in this particular matter.
She had been gone but a minute, when her cousin Sarra came, Bible in
hand, to ask the meaning of the verse, “Whether therefore ye eat, or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” There were
several other verses she wanted explained, and then by a little gentle
questioning, I learned some more of the trouble between her and Rakel,
who she said was always teasing her, using her books, and leaving them
about carelessly. Then she hung her head and confessed that when she
found her Bible on the divan, and Fido tearing out a leaf, she had at
once blamed Rakel, and retaliated by getting her Bible and banging it
on to the floor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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