Josephine Franklin

“ She had no desire to be left behind.”
“Perhaps,” said Melinda, “as it was a church-mouse, she thought it too poor to eat. I wish I had such a cat as Wildfire, Miss Elinor.”
“And so do I,” cried Nelly. “I’ll teach my cat, Nancy, to be knowing, just like her. Look at the wreath, Miss Elinor! Hasn’t it grown handsome while you were telling about Wildfire? It don’t seem a bit like a stump fence now, does it?” ”

“ It was at least three hours earlier than it was her habit to rise, yet she did not stop to think of that, but bounded out and began her morning's ablution; her mother having always striven to impress upon her the great fact that "cleanliness is next to godliness." It was but a short time when, leaving her mother, as she thought, soundly sleeping, Bessie crept noiselessly as possible down the stairs that led to the kitchen, and there carefully packed her cresses for market. ”

“ Johnny looked around without answering. He saw that there was no help for it; they must return the way they came, long as it was, or stay in the woods all night.
“Come, Nelly,” he said, “we must go back on the same path, if we can.”
It was getting quite dusky. They took each other by the hand and trudged along. One by one the flowers dropped from Nelly’s full apron, to the ground, and at length her weary fingers unclasped, and the apron itself resumed its proper position. Everybody knows how easy it is to lose one’s way, and what a difficult thing it is to find it again. ”

“ Nelly glanced at Bessie and longed to burst into a laugh, but Bessie signified to her by a movement of her eye-brows and lips that she must not. It was plain enough by this time that the little thief was a squirrel. Bessie was quite bewildered at the thought that it had been able to get in the house without her or her mother's knowledge. She did not know that the race to which the animal belonged is proverbial for its cunning, and that often it steals a [141] way into the habitations of men for no other purpose than to find seeds and grains on which to live. ”

“ As the two children went down the stairs together, Nelly said,
“Isn’t she good, Melindy?”
Melinda was not accustomed to behave herself for so great a length of time; her stock of good conduct was now pretty nearly exhausted, so she answered rather sharply,
“Of course she is. I know that as well as you, without bein’ told.”
Nelly felt something choking her in her throat.
“I will not,” she said firmly to herself, “I will not answer back. I’ll do as Martin says, and make a friend of Melindy, if I can. She isn’t so very bad, after all. Why, I do believe I rather like her.” ”

“ This morning one of the men threw a handful of hay accidentally in a lamb's face, and when it tried to push it off but couldn't, what does old aunty do but walk up and eat it away, every whisp. I thought that was quite bright of her, and kind too. On the whole I think they are a happy family."
"Does Nelly like 'em?" asked Bessie, as she patted the head of the one Martin called the "aunty."
"Yes," said Martin, "she thinks they are the handsomest animals on the place. They grow fonder of her every day." ”

“ Why, the field back of our house is full of 'em! They have great, thick, green leaves, and they look as healthy as possible."
"Do they?" said the farmer, smiling at her kindly; "well, then I can just tell you your folks are fortunate. They ought to sell 'em and make money out of them."
"I wish we could," said Bessie, clasping her hands at the thought, "how glad mother would be if we could! Mother is sick, sir, and cannot do all the work she used, to earn money." ”

“ Harrow’s son, Sidney, has come home, and oh, Miss Milly and Miss Elinor are so glad!”
“And so am I,” cried Nelly; “if ever there was good luck, that is.”
“I am not so sure about that,” said Melinda, with a sage, grown-up air; for she liked to seem like a woman, and often told her companions, “dear knows, if she wasn’t big enough to be thought one, she would like to know who was!”
"Why, isn’t Mr. Sidney a nice young man, Melindy?" asked Nelly, in bewilderment.
“Hush!” said Melinda, drawing her into a corner; “don’t talk so loud. ”

“ It thought, probably, that it was carrying off a good, sound nut."
"Yes," said Bessie, "and I dare say it was it that ran off with those in my basket, and all the others in the garden. Poor, dear Nathan! I must tell him about it, and ask him to forget my cross words. One of my Sunday-school hymns says, 'Kind words can never die.' I wonder if the unkind words live forever too. Do they, mother?" ”

“ Whoever showed the greatest interest, neatness and industry, was to be allowed to remain for a few hours after the closing of the school, in order to make a wreath [73] of evergreen to decorate a certain picture in Miss Elinor’s apartment. The Christmas holidays were near, and the little school-room had already received, at the willing hands of the children, a thorough dressing with laurel, pine, and hemlock-boughs. It had been for a week past the great delight of the pupils to weave, after school-hours, festoons for the whitewashed walls, and garlands for Miss Milly’s desk. ”

“ Bessie was not a promising scholar; she liked to do any thing in the world but study. She would look longingly out of the window a dozen times in the course of a single lesson, and when her mother reproved her by rapping her rather smartly on the head with her thimble, Bessie would only laugh, and say she guessed her skull must be thick, for the lesson would not get through, and the thimble did not hurt a bit! ”

“ What’s that, Johnny, flopping about in the grass?”
She pointed to the rock-side, where, as Johnny soon saw, a decided “flopping” was indeed going on.
“A fish! a fish!” cried the boy, catching it and holding it up in both hands, so that Nell could look at it; “I’ll take it to Martin to put on the string with the rest. It must have floundered off.”
“Oh, let us put it back,” cried Nelly; “poor Mr. Fish! I think you would really like to try your hand at swimming again.”
“Fin, you mean,” laughed John; “fishes don’t have hands that ever I heard tell. Shall I let it go?” ”

“ They began a thorough hunt, lifting up every light article in the out-garret, where they were, and dragging the more ponderous furniture from their places. It was a sort of store-away place for things not in every-day use, and therefore it took some time to examine every thing. An occasional pile of nibbled nut-shells was all that was brought to light.
"Well," said Nelly, laughing, as she looked under the last article, a little broken chair belonging to Bessie. "Well, I don't see but that Madame Squirrel has escaped us. I can't meet with a trace of her, for my part, beyond these nut-shells." ”

“ Sabbath as long as the evergreens are permitted to remain."
“I wish I could see a church looking like that,” remarked Nelly, stopping in her work, and looking meditatively about her.
“Miss Elinor,” said Melinda, “what do they mean when they say ‘as poor as a church-mouse?’ Why are church-mice poorer than house-mice?”
“Because,” was the reply, “in churches there are no nice pantries, filled with bread and meat, for the little plagues to feed upon. No stray crumbs lie on the floor,—no pans of milk are to be found at which to sip. So, you see, church-mice have a right to be considered poor.” ”

“ Dart. "I haven't taken a load to market for the last month without Dolly's basket of watercresses. She gathers them herself, down in our meadow, where the ground is wet and soft, and where they thrive like every thing. They seem to be getting poor now, and I don't believe Doll will be able to pick many more this year. Why, the money that girl has made off them cresses is wonderful. I always hand it right over to her, and she puts it by to save against [30] a time of need. Cresses sell just like wildfire in our market-place,—I mean, of course, fine ones like my Dolly's are in their prime." ”

“ Make her go home, Robert, do.’
"‘Not a bit of it,’ said Robert, laughing; ‘did you never see a cat go to meeting before? Wildfire has attended regularly, every summer, for the last three years. She always follows us. The minister would not know how to preach without her.’
"‘But,’ said I, ‘how it must look! a cat in church! A dog would not be so bad. But a cat! Go home, Wildfire!’ and I took off my red shawl and shook it at her, and stamped my foot. ”

“ There is no end to the soothing effect of those 'kind words that never die!'"
"He was cross enough with me about [151] it," said Bessie, reflectively. "I think a few kind words would not hurt him to say."
"We have nothing to do with Nathan as to that," said her mother. "If he chooses to be ill-tempered, it is his own business, while it is ours to bear it from him patiently. It is only by such means that we can teach him how wrong he is."
"I think that is pretty hard to do," said Bessie, shaking her head, "don't you, Nelly? I always want to answer right straight back." ”

“ One very cold winter night Milly came into Mrs. Brooks’s kitchen, and asked Comfort, a colored woman who worked for the family, where her mistress [15] was. Comfort promptly led the way to the sitting-room, where grouped coseyly around the centre-table were the different members of the farmer’s family. A bright fire blazed on the hearth, and the woolen curtains were tightly drawn to keep out the winds that whistled around the farm-house. ”

“ When I am grown up I hope I'll be good, anyway."
"Oh Bessie," said her mother, seriously, "do not wait till then. While you are young is the time to break yourself of bad habits and slothful ways. If you wait until you become a woman, they will have fastened themselves upon you so that you cannot shake them off."
Just as Bessie's mother pronounced the last words, she heard a knock on one of the outer doors. Bessie heard it too, and ran down stairs to open it. [62] It was now nearly time to expect Mr. Dart, and her heart beat with delight at the anticipation of the news she was so soon to hear. ”

“ Doing good to Melindy is just of no account at all.”
“Did you ever try it?” asked Martin.
“Well, no-o. You see I could tell it was of no use. And Miss Harrow, she stands Melindy on a chair with a paper cap on her head, every day, at dinner-time.”
“Poor girl,” said Martin, [38] “I am sorry for her.”
"I’m not," said Nell, promptly, “it keeps her from mischief, you know.”
Martin was silent.
Comfort began to sing a tune over her fish, interrupting herself at times with a low, quaint laugh, as though particularly well pleased with some thought.
“What’s the matter, Comfort?” asked Nelly. ”

“ Here is the squirrel's nest, and two of her little babies!"
The girls peered eagerly through the hole at these newly discovered treasures.
"The darlings!" cried Bessie, "we can surely tame these little creatures, mother, they are so young. It will be no trouble at all."
"We must not take them from the nest," replied her mother. "If we can tame them by kindness, and by gradually [155] accustoming them to our harmless visits, I am very willing to make pets of them."
"Oh, how pleasant that will be," exclaimed Bessie, in an ecstasy. "Do look, Nelly, at their pretty eyes. ”

“ Milly Harrow sank upon a seat, before the fire on the hearth, and wept such bitter, heart-breaking tears as it is to be hoped no one who reads her story has ever known. She was a gentle, refined, well-educated girl of twenty, and had met much more sorrow than happiness.
[17] “Milly,” said the farmer’s wife kindly, and advancing as she spoke, from the open door of the pantry, “come here to the table and see how a bit of this roast fowl tastes. And try this glass of currant wine,—you need not be afraid of it, it is home-made. ”

“ Many an honest man might be imprisoned as a thief if people should take mere conjecture for proof of guilt, while at the same time, many a thief would pass for an honest man. In law, all persons are supposed innocent, until they are proved guilty. You did not see Nathan take any thing belonging to you, nor do you know any one who [119] did. It would be the height of cruelty then, to accuse him without absolute proof."
"Yes," said Bessie, "but suppose he did take the nut after all."
"Then," said her mother, "we can only leave the case to that Judge who doeth all things well. ”

“ A large, overhanging rock, under the shade of a tree, served, as Martin said, for a “roosting-place,” and from it they found the bites so frequent that quite a little string of fish was made, and hung on some dead roots that projected from the bank.
“What a wild place this is,” said Martin, looking around him, as he drew in his line for the fourth time.
“Yes,” said Sidney; “it is. That is the best of it. I wouldn’t give a fig for it if it wasn’t. Look at that cow coming to drink. I wonder where she hails from! How she looks at us!” ”