"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look upon a little child,
Pity my simplicity,
Suffer me to come to Thee
Fain I would to Thee be brought;
Dearest God, forbid it not;
But in the kingdom of Thy grace
Grant a little child her place.
"Pray God bless dear father and mother, grandfather and grandmother,
and all kind friends and relations, and help me to be a good girl,
for Christ's sake. Amen."
Then, with one look at her rose to see if there were any more buds on
it, and a glance into the garden to see if grandfather was still
there, she lay down in her little white bed, and with a kiss from
granny and a last good-night she would be asleep almost before granny
had reached the foot of the stairs.
Then when morning came Jessie was just as glad to open her eyes and
spring out of bed as she had been to spring into it, for life was
full of all sorts of delights, indeed she would have liked nothing
better than for it to go on and on always in the same happy way.
With Mrs. Dawson, though, things were different. Granny began to
grow very troubled about Jessie's education.
"It is time she was learning," she said anxiously, many a time.
"I know she ought to go to Sunday-school regularly, but I don't know
how it is to be managed. She can't walk there and back three times a
day, I am sure. If she walked there and back in the morning, and
there and back in the afternoon, she wouldn't be fit to go with us in
the evening too. She would be tired out. We couldn't go to church
in the evening either, for one of us would have to stay with her."
Grandfather sat for a few moments meditating deeply over this
problem, then, "_I_ can teach her myself for a bit on Sundays," he
exclaimed triumphantly, his dear old face lighting up at the thought
of it. "I know enough about the Bible and Prayer-book for that.
It would do me good too."
"But there's her other schooling. What can we do about that?"
"I s'pose she'll have to do as the other children do," said
grandfather gravely, "and walk there and back twice every day.
Some of the bigger ones would let her walk with them, then she would
be safe enough. We will begin our Sunday-school next Sunday"--his
blue eyes lighting up with pleasure at the thought of it.
The day-school was quite a secondary matter to him, with the idea of
that other filling his mind. "We can sit in the garden while the
fine weather lasts. It would be lovely there, and good for the
little maid too."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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