American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Sunday schools -- United States -- Periodicals
A beautiful ham which had another card: "I'm boiled, and am very good
eaten cold." A bag of potatoes which said: "We are not cooked, but if
you will wash our coats and put us in your oven you will see how fast
we will get ready for dinner." So, through the box. There were two
pies, and a cake full of raisins, and a bag of nuts and candies. And
there was a package over which Janet cried for joy; she had laughed
about all the rest; but this had warm flannels, and three dresses for
the baby; and two suits almost as good as new for the little girls;
and a woollen blanket for father's bed, and could it be! Yes, there
was a new dress for herself; besides this, there were stockings and
shoes, and two flannel sacks, and I really have not time to tell you
what else. But pinned into a corner of a pretty handkerchief which had
Janet's name on it, was a shining bit of gold worth five dollars! Can
you imagine Mr. Burns' face when he came back with a loaf of bread he
had earned, not begged, a bit of dried beef, and found the table set, a
chicken before his plate, flanked by a dish of potatoes in such a hurry
to be eaten every one burst through their coats? All the talk there was
during the next hour, would make a book in itself.
"And you ain't no notion where they came from?" he asked for the third
or fourth time.
"Not the least in the world. One card says: 'From Santa Claus, to the
little girl who takes good care of her brothers and sisters;' but who
knows whether I take good care of them or not?"
"I suspect the Lord does," said Joseph Burns reverently, "and He has
told some of his children to send you a Christmas box. We must thank
the Lord, and trust to Him to pay the others. He will do it." But I
cannot help thinking, what if Janet had been cross that windy day!
SIX O'CLOCK IN THE EVENING.
HE DID THAT WHICH WAS RIGHT IN THE SIGHT OF THE
LORD.
THE HARVEST IS PAST, THE SUMMER IS ENDED, AND WE
ARE NOT SAVED.
FOR UNTO THIS DAY THEY DRINK NONE, BUT OBEY THEIR
FATHER'S COMMANDMENT.
BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON, THERE WE SAT DOWN, YEA,
WE WEPT WHEN WE REMEMBERED ZION.
"WHY, yes," said Grandma, with her finger on Rollo's verse, and her
eyes tender with old memories, "I remember a story about that verse;
and it is a story which I think likely I shall remember in Heaven."
"Let's hear it right away, if you please," Ralph said, and the others
settled into quiet as soon as possible.
"It wasn't so very many years ago, not more than fifty-five," began
Grandma, and then Rollo nudged Harold, and chuckled; and Marion looked
with grave astonished eyes at a woman who thought fifty-five years was
not a long, long time! But Grandma took no notice of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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