Madeline Leslie

“ They stood a moment, out of respect to the absorbing grief of the bowed form, and then the nurse gently touched her.
She understood at once that she must bid farewell, her long farewell, to the dear object of her affections. Stooping forward she lifted the lifeless body in her arms, and pressed her lips on the cheeks, the brow, eyes, and lips of the departed.
"Farewell, darling!" she whispered, tears raining down her cheeks; "farewell till I come to you. You're safe now with Jesus, and I'll be with you before long." ”

“ No one can cure himself of doing wrong by his own strength. When you say your prayers you must ask God to help you."
"I want to ask Him now," said Johnny.
"Well, shut your eyes, and you may."
"I want to be a good boy," began the child, clasping his little hands. "Will you please, God, to help me, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen."
"Now," said Charlie, "when you feel like fretting, just stop a minute and think. God will put cheerful thoughts in your mind, so you'll forget what you were complaining about."
"He didn't say He would," murmured Johnny. ”

“ She ran down the stairs, and did not stop until she had reached the arbor.
"Oh! how sick she does look!" she cried out, "What if she should die? I never, never will give way to my temper again! But I must go back; I can't stay here. I must go and read to her."
Mrs. Dobbs had arisen from her couch to give the invalid her medicine. When Helen entered, she noticed a slight flush on her patient's countenance, and moved her hand that the young girl had better retire.
"I want her here," said Mrs. Frost, with her sharp ringing tone. ”

“ From this time Helen and Jane vied with each other who could do most for the comfort of grandma. Helen was wholly unused to sickness, and was often awkward in her services; but all saw that her heart was touched, and her kind friend hoped the lesson would be of great benefit to her through life.
Certainly, during her visit, she, for the first time, learned the secret of true happiness. The sacrifice of our own wishes to the comfort of others brings a rich reward to our own hearts. ”

“ One day Ruth told her about Alick, and how sweetly he sung just before he went to heaven. She was silent for some time after this, and the next time she saw the nurse, asked softly,—
"Darling, do you think I shall die as Alick did? If I do, will you let me sing?"
The house-doctor used to come every day, and apply fresh starch bandages to Mary's limb. This caused her the keenest agony, and all her fortitude could not keep her from uttering sharp cries. But she soon regained her cheerfulness, and seemed to comfort herself with the thought that it was over for that day. ”

“ I've been in the wards long enough to know, if I never knew it before, that religion is the only thing that can carry us safely through the dark valley; and it makes the poor things so happy, too. Death is no king of terrors to those who love Jesus. He is their dearest friend, come to call them home to their mansion above the skies."
Ruth lay pondering these words; though her eyes followed the good nurse as she went from one couch to another, smoothing the clothes over one restless sufferer, or giving medicine to another. ”

“ Did you ever walk through the long rooms, called wards, among the rows of neat beds, with the white curtains before each couch, that the sufferer within may be entirely hidden from the view of even her nearest neighbors? Did you ever see the hospital surgeons, on what the patients call "student's day," when they go from one ward to another; a train of young surgeons following behind, visiting each couch in succession, and enquiring into the symptoms of each poor sufferer? ”

“ Pat was quite comforted when he found that he had a jacket quite as good as the one at the shop. The next sabbath he went with Dilly to sabbath school; and, after this, continued to attend regularly. They both learned to read the Bible and to obey the commands of God.
Our little rag picker is a rag picker no longer; but she is good Dilly, still, with her warm heart and cheerful temper. She has learned about the Saviour, and how he loves good children, and every day she tries to please him. ”

“ The kind lady who every few days brought her flowers, fruit and playthings, she called "the lady in black." The woman with the dreadful hitch in her face, was "Patty McNiles's bye," because she was always talking about her "bye," boy.
Though Mary was a constant sufferer, she scarcely ever complained. At first she sympathized too keenly with those about her, and often asked Miss Alden, whom she called "Darling," whether it was not time to give such a patient her medicine, whether it would not do Ruth's hands good to spat them. ”

“ Some of the men who worked hero lived a few miles out of town, and were able to make a better living by keeping a horse and cart, and carrying away for sale so much of the coal as their neighbors wished to sell.
Here it was that poor Dilly had worked for ten long hours. Do you wonder she was tired? Oh, how she longed to jump up and run about, for her limbs ached from being bent under her. When she stopped just for a moment to look about, her father said, "Mind your work, Dilly!" ”

“ Frost had been weeping silently all the time my husband spoke; now she cried aloud."
"Jotham tried to soothe her. 'Keep up good courage, mother,' he said. 'You'll live to see me a colonel yet. The war wont last forever, and I shall be a great man when I come home. Mr. Dobbs has promised to take care of you while I'm gone.'"
"And then my husband called us all to witness that he would provide for the widowed mother, as long as God gave him the ability. I gladly joined in the promise. I need not stop to tell you more of that scene. Mr. Dobbs gave Jotham the black mare, and all his outfit. ”

“ Mr. Dobbs searched the market for game and other dainties to tempt the palate of his sick guest. Jennie ran up and down stairs with new alacrity; sacrificing her own wishes to the happiness of the old woman. Helen only remained gloomy and restless.
"What can it mean?" she asked herself one day, when she overheard Mrs. Dobbs praising the servants for their ready assistance during their late affliction, adding that five dollars had been added to the credit of each of them. "What reason have they for treating her so well? If it was their own mother, they couldn't do more." ”

“ Then the little girl bent over her basket, her face growing every moment more sad, and wondering whether she should have to pick coal every day of her life.
To make the best of it, this was a bad school for Dilly to be brought up in, for she heard men, women, and even children swearing around her; and very often persons quarrelling about the lots they had marked out. ”

“ Jane came in and began to expostulate. "Why!" said she, "your mother gave you leave to stay all summer."
Helen burst into tears. "I wouldn't stay here when that old woman dies; no, not for the world." She shuddered as she added, "I don't like to be in the house when there are death and funerals."
"We must all die, sometime," murmured Jane, in a thoughtful tone. "But," she added after a minute, "mother doesn't think she will die at present; she says she has been subject to these faint turns ever since Jotham died ”

“ They stopped near the lot his father had selected and began to talk with a couple who were busily engaged in sorting rags. Pat had been near enough to hear what was said.
"You have a large pile of rubbish there," said one lady. "Do you make much by it?"
"And sure, ma'am," the woman answered, "we get a living; but it's a hard way."
"Tell us how you manage," said a gentleman.
"It's jist this way, sir," interrupted the man. "We comes here and takes each our own lot, striving, of coorse, for the best, sure. Then we sets ourselves to work to find what we can. ”

“ Unless some vigorous measures were taken, the labor and savings of a whole life would be sacrificed. I was greatly distressed, and knew not what to do. I went to my chamber, and endeavored to throw my burden upon one who has promised to aid his suffering children. All at once I determined to send to one of our neighbors for a young man, and get him to go to the camp."
"Jotham Frost was the only child of the sick woman up-stairs. At that time she was in good health, earning a comfortable support by her own exertions. ”

“ Sometimes there's very little, and then again, there's more. My woman and I first picks out all the coal, putting it in one pile, and the junk in another, like this."
"But what can you do with those rotten pumpkins and potatoes?"
"And sure, that's a fine chance for us, ma'am. We live out of the city a bit, and kape a cow and a pig, besides a horse and a hen; so it's bad luck, indeed, if we don't find something to feed them all with."
"You are better off than I thought," rejoined the lady, smiling. "I suppose you own a cart, too, and carry your treasures home in it." ”

“ Having done this, he ran to cell his sister, and stood laughing at her distress."
"'Oh, take him off! take out the nails quick! he'll die!' screamed the poor girl. 'O James, see how the blood runs!' Finding he would not listen to her entreaties, she ran to the nearest house to call a neighbor; and they had just succeeded in releasing Frisk from his dreadful position, when her parents drove into the yard." ”

“ When the doctor made his morning call, instead of answering his question as to how she had slept, she gave him a description of the kind of treatment to which she was exposed.
"But I'll know who did it; I'll know," she kept repeating.
"You're worse off than the woman with a hitch in her face," he said with a quiet smile; "you have a hitching chair. But I dare say Miss Alden will make it all right."
There was some inquiry made as to who was the author of the mischief; but without any discovery. The woman grumbled all day, that she was "dacent,—as dacent as any one in the hospital. ”

“ Near almost all large cities some place is set apart where the rubbish gathered from the streets is carried. Persons who live in nice houses do not like to have old coal, broken crockery, or rags lying around their small yards, and so they gather all these things into barrels or boxes, and men go round with carts and take them away. ”

“ Well, I'm sorry for you; but 'twasn't a real dollar; it only looked like one. When you get a real dollar I'll sell you the jacket."
Poor Pat went home very much crestfallen. "I hate rag picking," he exclaimed, entering the room he called home.
"See what a nice supper I've got," cried Dilly. "I can take good care of baby. Only think, Pat, there's potatoes, and porridge, too. I'm so glad, I am."
"The lady has been here again," said Mrs. Hogan, trying to cheer her boy. "She has persuaded the gentleman to give your father work on the lumber-wharf." ”

“ Now, I'll tell you a good game, one which the Bible recommends. Call your quick temper, your impatience, and fretfulness, your enemies, and fight them as much as you please. Be too much of a man and a soldier to let your passion gain the victory over you; but fight till you conquer, then you may beat the drum over every successful battle."
Eddy's eyes flashed with a new light. He stood up proudly, gazing first at his mother, then at Susy, and at last exclaimed, "I'll do it!"
Willie's Grave.
CHAPTER I. VISIT TO THE GRAVEYARD.
DID you ever go into a graveyard, and walk around among the graves? ”

“ He ought to keep lifting up his heart to God, and saying, 'thank you, God, for all this.' If he has any little troubles, he ought to remember how many children there are who have no home nor kind parents nor any pretty toys. ”

“ This was the reason why Willie could answer so cheerfully when God called him home,—
"'I'll away, I'll away to the promised land,
My Saviour calls me, I must go
To meet him in the promised land.'"
The Substitute.
CHAPTER I. GRANDMA FROST.
"I'm glad that old woman don't live at our house," exclaimed Helen Dobbs, in a petulant tone. "Is she any relation of yours, or what is it makes you wait on her so?"
"Oh, there's a sad story about her," answered Jane. "I must get mother to tell you about her son." ”

“ Hogan put his hand quickly to his breast, and turned away suddenly without saying a word.
"Come, little girl, you shall tell me all about it," continued the stranger kindly. "Don't you have enough to eat?"
"Oh, yes," she said, "and when I go home I shall have some porridge in my pretty cup. I've got a new baby, too. He's real funny, but he can't open his eyes yet—he's too little."
Before Dilly had finished her story, her father had gathered a large pile of wood, and tied it together with a cord he found in the street. ”