Lucy Ellen Guernsey

“ I suppose when I am of age I shall have ever so much money, and perhaps I can do some good with that," continued Amity, who somehow felt as if it would be a comfort to tell all her thoughts to her new friend. "But I don't think it is always easy to do good with money either."
"Very true and besides, you would have a good while to wait. Eleven years is a long time to live in the world without doing any good in it; don't you think so?"
"Yes, ma'am," answered Amity, slowly. "I don't know what I can do though. It is just as Aunt Julia says: I have no talent. ”

“ Amity drew herself up. "If you are going to talk like that, I think we had better drop the subject," said she, trying, without much success, to look and speak like Aunt Julia. But the air which may be quite imposing in a tall, handsome grown-up lady has quite the contrary effect in a dumpy, tow-headed little girl.
And Emma only laughed.
"Dear me, how grand!" said she. "But it isn't a bit of use, Amity: you can't look tall if you try." ”

“ It is a very great thing when any person comes to know that God loves him—himself—despite all his faults and foolishness. It is too great a thing to put into any words of mine. It helps to make the hardest tasks easy and the heaviest burdens light, to conquer the worst sins and make us long to forgive those who have done us the most harm. And more than that, there is nothing which makes any one feel so little in his own eyes as the conviction that the great and wise and perfectly lovely God loves him.
So Phil felt. ”

“ I didn't mean a real garden though—only a bed for flowers and maybe some radishes or the like. I can dig up the ground and mend the fence and plant my seeds before it's time to take the cow out, and then they'll be growing while we're sleeping. Mr. Regan said he'd show me how to plant the seed. I'd like to be a gardener when I'm grown-up, granny. I think it is so nice all among the trees and plants; better than working in the dusty, woolly carpet factory, or in the hat factory among the dyestuffs and smells. ”

“ Before she had finished her walk, she had come to the wise conclusion that she had been making herself very unhappy for nothing, and that after all she had a great deal to be thankful for. Every one was good to her—even Aunt Julia, who, after all, had not meant to hurt her feelings, since she could not know that any one was in the summer-house. She had books and flowers, and grandpapa let her have as many pets as ever she liked, and had promised her a pony.
"And if I am not handsome, why, then I am not, and that is all about it," said Amity, very wisely. ”

“ I am not going to flatter you, Amity, by telling you that you are pretty, or to say that beauty is of no account. I don't think so. Beauty is like other gifts of God, to be used for his service and glory. He has not seen fit to give it to you, and you must try to be content without it. Your duty toward your neighbors requires you to be neat and tidy, and to dress so as not to offend the taste of those about you. ”

“ Phil dropped the bill which Horace had thrust into his hand, into a puddle which last night's rain had left at the gate, and walked into the church without a word.
"Served you right, you snob," said John.
"Well, I think he might have taken the money, so long as he is not too proud to wear Neil Barnard's old clothes. I knew them the minute I saw them."
"It's one thing to take a present given in kindness, and another thing altogether to take it when it is thrown in your face," said Harry. "You think you can do just what you like because you are rich; but there are some things money won't buy. ”

“ Amity's false excuse was like the thorn. It had been quiet for a while, but now it began to trouble her. Conscience would persist in calling it by its right name, and in telling her that she had been unkind and unfaithful to the poor little motherless, helpless child, and perhaps had done him more harm than she would ever do him good. She had a very uneasy feeling as she remembered what Mrs. Franklin said about "heart disease." What if Johnny should die?
When a person has been brought up in the habit of listening to the voice of conscience, the habit is not easily broken up. ”

“ Matty could not help relenting when she saw the poor baby stop its wailing, smile, and put out its hands to Phil, who took it carefully in his arms.
"I do believe he remembers you," said she. "I'll just put on the kettle for daddy's tea, and put my flowers in water, and then I must mend Bridget's frock decent for the sewing-school to-morrow."
"I'll tend him while you do it," said Phil, whose heart began to feel a good deal lighter.
He walked up and down, or sat on the seat by the door, crooning a song till the poor little baby fell fast asleep and had a good nap. ”

“ Phil felt that this was unreasonable in Matty. The goat was not much hurt after all, and not in the least likely to die; and even if she did, there was a good deal of difference between killing several little babies on purpose and hurting a troublesome goat more than one meant. But then Matty was tired, and anxious about poor Patsy, and it was no wonder she was cross when she never had a bit of real rest, much less fun, from one week's end to another. I say he felt this. We often feel in an instant things it would take a long time to think. ”

“ And if we ask him, he will give us his Spirit to make us like him. I think too, Harry, that when we once come to have a real sight of our own sins, we shall not think so much of other people's sins against us."
"But suppose you do try to forgive and think you have, and then something makes it all come up again?" asked Phil eagerly.
"Yes; suppose the same fellow that spoiled garden should poke some money at you and say, 'There, there's enough to pay for your beggarly garden ten times over,'" said Harry, finishing his sentence in spite of Phil's beseeching looks. ”

“ Regan gave me a fine geranium, and when I came home she was just eating off the head of it, and 'twas kind of provoking, you see."
"What made you leave the plant in the poor thing's way then?" said Matty. "You know 'tis the beast's nature to eat every such thing. And now I dare say she'll die," exclaimed Matty, bursting into tears, "and then my dear precious little Patsy will die too, and you'll be just a murderer, Phil O'Connor, as bad as King Herod that killed the innocents." ”

“ Aunt Julia says it is very rude to stare at a person who has anything odd or unfortunate about him. I have seen this little boy before. I wonder if he will know me!"
"Of course he won't. Come, let us go out on the veranda."
"I am going to speak to Johnny first," said Emma. "Come, Amity."
"She just wants to show how good she is, and that Amity is just such another," said Maud to her companions, as they went out of the room. "She knows she is homely, and she means to try the good dodge." ”

“ If you begin or try to go on in your own strength, you will never succeed."
Judge Bogardus did not often speak in this way, and Amity was all the more struck with his words. They seemed to bring her down somehow from a little pinnacle of self-conceit she had been standing on, and she answered quite humbly:
"I know, grandpapa. That was what mother was always saying."
"Your mother was a good woman, my dear, and I hope you will be another. Teach the poor little boy by all means if you can, but don't expect too much of him; and now go and get your hat. I want you to ride with me." ”

“ The other boys stared at Phil, and Horace laughed rather rudely, but Miss Isabel turned to him with a smile. She had been feeling tired and sad, and it was a real pleasure to perceive that one of the class at least had listened.
"I don't think that ever happens, Phil," said she. "God gives every one of us some kind of seed to sow, and some kind of a place to sow it in. It may be a very small, narrow corner that we have to cultivate; but if we work faithfully at that he is sure to give us more. ”

“ And Amity waited a minute before opening the basket, while she asked that she might have help to do the work faithfully. There is no kind of good work in which we cannot ask his help.
"But I can't think what any one could be thinking about to cut patchwork like that," said Amity as she spread out the pieces on the floor. "Just see here, Anna, what work! There are no two pieces alike." ”

“ Anderson is a real fine man and will do well by you, and so is Mr. Williams, though he's a bit short tempered at times, as I mind your own father that's in glory this minute used to be when the work hurried him. As for Miss Isabel, she's just the darling of the world."
"I'm thinking Phil will get to be a great man one of these days," said Mary.
"I hope he'll get to be a good man, and that's better," said granny. "Greatness isn't the first thing to strive for, nor yet riches, nor yet learning even, though all are good in their way. ”

“ But don't waste any more time, for I want you to go over to Albany with me at half-past twelve to meet Aunt Julia, and it is after nine now."
"I might miss the lesson for one morning," said Amity.
"No, no, don't do that: the poor little fellow will feel very much disappointed. And besides, a promise is a promise; remember that, little girl."
"I wish grandfather would not always call me a little girl, and before people too," said Amity to herself as she went along the hall and up the long stairs: "I am not such a baby as all that. ”

“ Paget has sewing-school on the brain, I think," said Miss Julia. "Yes, to be sure, if you like to do it. Why do you ask?"
"I always asked mamma before I did any such thing," said Amity.
"And a very good plan it is, when one has a mamma to ask. Yes, baste as much patchwork as you please. Tell Anna to give you my old pink and white cambric; that will make you some very pretty pieces. I like to help people amuse themselves in their own way, even when that way is not mine. But remember, if I find you bent into a heap over your work, I shall take it away from you."
"I will remember, Aunt Julia. ”

“ Franklin told mother that was one reason she staid here—because Johnny liked to hear the band and see the people. He has very bad attacks of pain sometimes, and then he cries as he did last night; but generally he is very good and pleasant."
"He hasn't sense enough to be anything else," said Maud, with the usual toss of her head.
"It takes very little sense to be disagreeable," remarked Emma, demurely. "See, there he comes! Let's go and speak to him. He always likes that."
Amity looked at the pale lame little boy, whom a kind-looking lady was carefully placing in an arm chair by the window. ”

“ I wouldn't let him take my talking doll, and I called him 'an idiot.' Mrs. Franklin, won't you please take these flowers? I bought them with my own money. I felt as if I wanted to do something. I know one thing, anyhow," said Maud, as they walked away: "I never will call any one names again. I suppose we ought not to wish Johnny back, because he is a great deal better off; but I can't help wishing I could see him long enough to tell him how sorry I am."
"You will have to tell it to the Lord, as I did," said Amity, softly.
————————
"And what kind of a girl has Amity turned out?" ”

“ Phil's blood tingled with anger again, but he stamped his foot and clenched his teeth so that not a word came through. He put the knife in his pocket, and getting out his Bible, he sat down in his favorite corner to learn his Sunday-school lesson. He looked up the Golden Text, though he had it on his "lesson paper," for he liked to read the verses which came before and after. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1 John 4:10, 11) . ”

“ She is a good deal of a reader, and likes steady plodding work like mathematics. She is wonderfully industrious, too—always busy about something. She keeps house now, and really, for one so young, she manages uncommonly well. She is a great deal better at accounts than ever I was, and keeps the house cheerful and pleasant. Then she makes herself useful in the church—teaches in Sunday-school, looks after poor folks, and has a great sewing-class. She is always knitting babies' socks, or a shawl for some old woman, or a comforter for some urchin in her class. ”

“ She is a vain, proud girl, who looks down on every one, and thinks nothing of people who are not rich. And then she is going to lose all her property somehow, and get good all of a sudden. That is always the way with heiresses."
I confess that is very apt to be the way with heiresses in books; but it was not at all the way with Amity Bogardus. A more humble-minded child, one who thought less of herself and more of her neighbors, it would be hard to find. ”

“ Lewis, Mrs. Barnard's coachman, was sitting on a block by the stable door talking to William, her grandfather's man. He started at the sight of Amity and the pug-dog.
"What in the world brings you down here, Miss Amity? Has anything happened?"
Amity told her story, and the men clustered round to look at the dog.
"Stand away, can't you, and don't crowd the young lady," said Lewis, who was a very genteel colored man indeed. "'Pears like you ain't no manners at all. Haven't you got a basket or something to put him in, William?" ”