American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Sunday schools -- United States -- Periodicals
All who have carriages, or wagons, and a faithful horse or two in the
generous barns at home, ask your father or uncle if they will loan them
to you for an hour after supper on a pleasant evening, that all the
players may choose. Those who have no wagons, or anything that a horse
could draw, need not be debarred from joining in this game; possibly
they can contribute a large cart, that they could propel themselves or,
a boy not easily baffled, might join the procession, with an improvised
floor on wheels on which soft cushions are piled.
At any rate, let the procession be formed, of every “go-able vehicle,”
superintended by careful drivers, and where the space admits, carrying
happy, merry-voiced children to make the poor invalids forget their
sufferings.
Invalids? Yes, indeed, this is the “Invalids Wheeling Party,” the
blessedest invention of modern times. The “Shut-in Society” brought out
for a breath of fresh air—God’s poor children, who for wise reasons of
His, are serving Him in narrow rooms of want, now, by the kind hands of
children, admitted to the sweet peace of the summer eventide.
Do you not know them—these patient invalids? living perhaps very near
to you. There is the little lame boy—the washerwoman’s son, who when
she goes out to her work, minds the baby, and tries in his poor way to
help mother. “Dot-and-go-one” you and the other children perhaps call
him.
Wouldn’t it vary proceedings a bit if you were to send him a little
note, saying something like this:
JIMMY:
Will you go to ride after supper with Frank and me?
EGBERT.
Or, there is old Mrs. Clemens. She is not pleasant-looking, to be sure;
snuffy and disagreeable in her ways also. But she has not stepped out
of her cottage only to go as far as the woodpile in five years. Think
of it! Suppose now Mrs. Clemens should find under her door some fine
morning a little white note in which the old lady should read:
DEAR MRS. CLEMENS:
Mary Alice Smith and I would like to give you a ride this
evening after supper in my father’s wagon. I hope you can go.
SUSAN EMBURY.
Don’t you suppose the Clemens cottage would be a new place all that day?
And so on. Even if you do not personally know who is needing these
sweet country drives, some one will be brought to your notice on
inquiry.
When the procession is formed, let some one lead who is intelligent,
as to the choice of a delightful locality (for invalids like to see
something new and pretty), and the best way for getting there.
Then while the greatest cheerfulness prevails let there be no
unnecessary noise, I beseech you, for your guests are unaccustomed to
excitement, and are easily wearied. There should be sweet attentions,
little courtesies, and the feeling of real enjoyment of giving
hospitality on your part, but all done and expressed quietly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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