The Daughters of the Little Grey HouseTaggart, Marion Ames
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The Daughters of the Little Grey House
Taggart, Marion Ames
Families -- Juvenile fiction
"Open the door, please, Polly," said Rob, wondering why Aunt Azraella
should choose this entrance on her story-telling afternoon.
Mrs. Winslow entered, and seated herself near the door. "Go on,
Roberta," she said. "I will wait; I wanted to see you alone, so came
this way."
"Almost through, Aunt Azraella," said Rob. "So you see, children, as we
were saying," she continued, "Godfrey de Bouillon was a great soldier,
a wonderful leader of men, but that which we remember first when we
think of him is not his high courage, or brilliant mind, but that he
refused to wear a golden crown in Jerusalem, where his Lord had been
crowned with thorns, and that he put away from him the honour and name
of king, and would be called but the Defender of the Holy Sepulchre.
Thus Godfrey, the hero, shows us that greatness of name and fame is
less than greatness of soul, and his humble piety rings through the
ages more loudly than the clash of his battles. We shall none of us be
great in the other ways in which Godfrey was great, but we may try to
have a little of his greatness of soul, and turn away from gain, and
the glitter of worldly glory when conscience tells us that it is higher
and nobler to be poor and lowly. And this last story of the crusaders
shows us, what the lives of all real heroes show us, and that is that
he is bravest who knows when to say No, and that the highest courage
is to dare for the sake of right. It shows us that the greatest hero
is not he whom the world honours, or who cares for its praise, but he
who fights against meanness and cruelty; loving purity, truth and right
better than anything that the world can give him. If we try, perhaps,
like Godfrey of Bouillon, when we are tempted we can refuse gold and
high sounding title, and greater glory if to get it we should have to
be less worthy of the Master whom, when He came to show the world the
beauty of holiness, they crowned with thorns."
Rob's voice trembled as she ceased, and she buried her face for an
instant in the mignonette at her side. The chivalric girl was stirred
into profound emotion at the thought of lofty deeds; she thrilled and
quivered at the presentation of the highest ideals, and responded
to the beauty of renunciation with the full force of her own great
heartedness.
The children crowded around her to bid her good-bye with as much
eagerness and fervour as if this had been a life-long parting instead
of the end of her stories for the summer. She kissed each flushed,
upturned little face, and when the last had withdrawn, turned to Aunt
Azraella with a tired sigh.
"It's lovely work entertaining them, Aunt Azraella," she said, "and
beautiful to see how they care for it, but it is exhausting. Why, what
has happened?" she added, seeing for the first time the expression on
Mrs. Winslow's face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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