“ Warner was very patient, and the heart that beat under the dark skin was very loving and sweet.
“Yes; I see it now,” he said one day, as he dropped the first sweet harvest apple into grandma’s lap. “It took a good while, but I understand. If you are told to do a thing, you must do it. Then, if there’s any time left, or, if you can crowd the pleasant thing in along with it, all right. But sometimes it’s powerful hard. ”

“ When the curfew bell in the church tower rings out at sundown Hans and Gretchen tumble into their bed on the top of the stove. Yes, really, on the top of the big, square white porcelain stove! It is a good, warm place, although it never gets hot, and even on bitter January nights, covered with a big red feather bed, the children are only comfortably warm. They cannot fall off because the father has placed high boards on each side of the bed. ”

“ When the wise men of Egypt could not tell the king what it meant his chief butler remembered how Joseph had told him the meaning of a dream when he was in prison; and when the king sent for Joseph he told Pharaoh that the dreams were a warning from God, that after seven plentiful years in Egypt there would be seven years of famine, which would eat up all the corn they could save up, and so Joseph came to be a great man in Egypt. ”

“ I s’pose he’d like to smile all the time and be bright and jolly. But sometimes God tells him to rain, and he just goes and does it, like a major.
“Didn’t use to seem ’s if I was selfish if I kept the cows waiting while I picked some wild flowers for Mrs. Warner. But I really suppose it was.”
Dear little Ned! God bless him!
THE GOLDEN RULE. LIZZIE had a present of a wild bluebird from her auntie, who caught it when it was a wee baby bird. It was a beauty, and Lizzie was very happy with her pet. One day she hung the cage on the veranda and saw how pleased the little creature was. ”

“ It sounded so ridiculous we all burst out laughing.
You cannot sing when you are angry; you cannot sing when you are mean; you cannot sing when you are scared. In other words, you cannot sing unless you feel in some degree faith, or hope, or charity. ”

“ These children in the picture are dressed up in their Sunday clothes to have their photographs taken. When they go home to the little village way up on the mountain side they will take off these garments and put on their everyday things. Hans will draw a long-sleeved black apron over his school suit, and then, fastening on his back the wooden pail which you see in the picture, will run down the steep cobble-stoned street, with his shoes clattering at every step, to the big stone fountain to draw water for his mother. ”

“ In a few minutes the little drops felt as if they were being pulled back to earth, and starting from the cloud which was holding them, they said to one another, “Now for a race!” And soon, patter, patter, patter, came the sound of the rain, and the little drops once more were back in their earth home.
Ah! how the flowers lifted their drooping heads and smiled then. If you had been very close, you might almost have heard them sing, “God is good! God is good!”
BRASS BUTTONS. LITTLE Ruth Cleveland, when she was the baby of the White House, had no very exalted idea of her father’s great office. ”

“ When Joseph was in the prison in Egypt it was a dream which saved all the land in time of famine, but this time it was the king’s dream. King Pharaoh dreamed one night that he stood by the river, and seven fat cattle came up out of the water and fed in a meadow. Pretty soon afterward seven lean cattle came up out of the water and ate up the seven fat cattle. ”

“ So Jesus, having once lived in the flesh, and for our sakes became poor, and having suffered weariness, hunger, thirst, bitter temptations, and finally death itself, knows all our human estate, our sorrows, cares, and anxieties, and ever sympathizes with us with infinite tenderness and love. We have not a Saviour who cannot understand all that comes to us. ”

“ It is only on great festivals, like birthdays and Christmas, that they taste sugar or cake. By seven o’clock Hans buckles on his knapsack, in which he carries his books, and after helping Gretchen to adjust hers they both run gayly off to school, each one carrying in a roomy basket a huge chunk of black bread to eat at ten o’clock. ”

“ Warner, “that the Lord must want him in heaven. He has such a heavenly voice.”
“I think it more likely that God put an angel’s voice in Neddy’s throat to give us a taste of heavenly music,” said grandma, looking up from the apples she was paring.
“Bosh! you women folks are so everlastingly simple and silly that you encourage the boy in his mischief;” and Farmer Warner set down the milk pail with such a thud that the milk slopped over into the sauce his wife was dishing for supper.
“Now, Henry, you have ruined that dish of apple sauce,” expostulated Mrs. Warner ”

“ Who knows not the meaning of “flirt” or “style.” THE FLOWERS AND THE WATER DROPS. DOWN in an earth garden were some flowers all drooping and sad. Father Sun saw them, and calling his little children, the sunbeams, to him, said, “To-day, my little helpers, I need you to do some work for me. Go down to the big, round earth far below, and bring back to the sky country all the water dust that you can carry.”
The little sunbeams started, and although it was a long, long journey, they were so bright and merry that it seemed like play to them. ”

“ The gentleman would place the handle of a small fan in his mouth, and then the snake would gently wave the fan to and fro, and thus keep the flies from his master’s face.
He was as good as a cat to keep the old log house free from mice. He often brought in ten or twelve in a day. His fondness for mice was his ruin. It happened in this way: One day the gentleman missed Slippery Dick, and though he hunted and called all day, he could not find any trace of his pet. ”

“ HAVE you heard, children, that the bluebirds are nearly gone from our country? Other families of singing birds are going fast, and by and by it may be that we shall have only the sparrows and other birds that have no beautiful colors or sweet songs. ”

“ At washing she never has grumbled,
From that sad day to this. THE DIFFERENCE IN BIBLES. LITTLE Mary wanted to learn her Sunday school lesson. It was Saturday afternoon, and the time was passing; but she had been busy with her dolls dress, and the lesson was yet unlearned. At length her elder sister took a Bible and said:
“Come, Mary, I will help you to learn your lesson, and you can go back to your play.” Mary came to her sisters side ready to begin her lesson, when she suddenly began:
“Sister, let us study it out of grandfather’s Bible.” ”

“ And so Lizzie wrote a letter to her auntie, asking if she might set her dear bird free. Auntie said she might, and the very next morning Lizzie opened the prison door and birdie went free, all because a loving-hearted little girl was willing to do as she would like to be done by.
A LITTLE FLOWER MISSION OF HER OWN. “PICK your poppies every day,” said grandma, “and then others will come to take their place; and if you leave a fine one here and there with a bit of thread of the same color tied to its stem, you will know how to sort them.” ”

“ Is never to mind what the people say,
But to do what you think is right.”
“The party was out at nine.”
CHILDREN’S SAYINGS. BESSIE stood watching the sky one day as the sun went behind a cloud.
“The sun has gone to call on the moon. Why, there he is again,” she exclaimed, as he reappeared almost at once; “I suppose she wasn’t at home.”
When little Ada, aged three, had been told the story of Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt she asked her mother, anxiously, “Is all salt made of ladies?” Later, when six years old, she was called one Sunday, “Come, Ada, and learn your catechism;” ”