Various

“ Nettie's cheeks began to grow a deep pink; she looked down at the hurrying chickens with a grave face for a moment, then said gently: "You know, Jerry, I haven't any money to help buy the chickens, and I cannot help own what I do not help buy; they are your chickens, but I shall like to watch them and help you plan about them." ”

“ It was a Christmas frolic pure and simple, and pretty soon every soul in the room was engaged in it; the end [91] was a shower of comfits and bonbons scattered in approved style after the stockings were declared really empty, yielding nothing more from vigorous shakings.
"I never was so rich in my life," cried George Edward in a burst of gratitude, patting his pile of presents. "It was just the jolliest stocking my Santa Claus ever brought," and he marched up to put his arm around his mother's neck. ”

“ And to this day, I suppose it would not be possible to make Susie Decker believe that the spirits of beautiful old ladies hid in the daisies! Some people cannot see things, you know, show them as much as you may.
But Nettie was charmed with the little old woman. She left the potatoes waiting to be washed, and sat down on the steps with eager little Sate, and made old lady after old lady. Some with spectacles, and some without. ”

“ There was an old man who worked for my father, who used to say so often: 'Where there's a will there's a way,' that after awhile we boys got to calling him 'Will and Way' for short, you know; his name was John," and here Jerry stopped to laugh a little over that method of shortening a name; "but it was wonderful to see how true it proved; he would make out to do the most surprising things that even my father thought sometimes could not be done. We must make a way to earn some money."
Nettie laughed a little. ”

“ We own Mrs. Biddy; every feather on her knot, of which she is so proud, belongs to us, and she must not only earn her own living and that of her children, but bring us in a nice profit besides. Those are plump little fellows; I can imagine them making lovely pot pies for some one who is willing to pay a good price for them. Cannot you?"
"Poor little chickens," said Nettie in such a mournful tone that Jerry went off into shouts of laughter. He was a humane boy, but he could not help thinking it very funny that anybody should sigh over the thought of a chicken pot pie. ”

“ Just then the second bell rang and Gracie was obliged to go and get ready for breakfast. Other surprises awaited her, but she was unusually thoughtful, and at last Louise said, "Gracie, what makes you so sober? Are you not satisfied?"
"O, yes; but I am thinking what I can give to a little girl who has nothing to make her happy to-day."
"I don't believe there are any such people," said Louise; "everybody manages to get about so much out of something, I guess. They may not have just what we have, but there's something."
"Do you believe that?" asked cousin Tom. ”

“ Hortense turned a stiff little back upon her precious candy pile, most of it saved with provident forethought to eat in the following days when amusements would run low. Could she?
She swallowed very hard an obstacle in her throat, said no in big letters to her own small mind, then ran over to George Edward, both hands full of sweets, and said in an odd little way all her own: "There, that's to make the poor people sick." A shout greeted her; but her mother kissed her, and Hortense was satisfied.
The baby of the group must not shame them all. ”

“ She is too silly for anything. They don't look the least bit in the world like old women. I told her so, fifty-eleven times, and she keeps saying it!"
Nettie held out her hand for the bunch of daisies and looked at them carefully, and laughed.
"Can't you see them?" was little Sate's eager question. "They are just as plain! Don't you see them a little bit of a speck, Nannie?"
"Of course she doesn't!" said scornful Susie. "Nobody but a silly baby like you would think of such a thing." ”

“ If you want a row of people to exhibit their eyes, of course you must have a row of the holes. Supposing you have only one. The frame is placed in front of a door opening into another room or a hall, from which the actors are to come, the audience sitting on chairs on the other side of the frame. Now a boy or girl who is ready at speaking, and can say funny little things nicely, must stand before the frame, and introduce the strange beast or bird, or man or woman, or child, or mummy, just what the showman chooses to call it, to the assembled company. ”

“ There are a great many people in this city who have very little to make them happy, and you and I who have so much may make at least one heart joyful on this glad Christmas day, do you not think so?"
"If I knew how," said Gracie.
"We will try to find a way. I see you are quite dressed up this morning," referring to the dressing-gown. "Do you see my new one?"
"Yes; you are the one that is dressed up."
"I know a poor invalid to whom I mean to give the old one, and there is a little girl who has not a comfortable dress nor a pair of shoes." ”

“ So they gathered their pennies, and sent them out, and Layah went to the mission school; but she had to run away from home in order to do so.
The story of her life since then reads almost like a fairy tale; one can hardly imagine it possible that all the strange experiences of which she tells, could have come to her. How she grew up, and married, and went to Egypt as a missionary; how her brother, the very one who used to whip her through the streets, became a Christian, and a teacher in the Mission; how her mother, soon after, learned to love Jesus; how Layah saved many little girls in Egypt ”

“ That was true enough. One day his father bought him a picture book, and guided the pencil in his hand and let him put his name in it. After a good deal of coaxing, aunt Patty sat down and took him in her lap, and held that old quill, guiding it as well as she could, and he did get what looked something like his name in the book. It was very queer writing," said Grandma, stopping to laugh at the thought of it, with that same tender look in her eyes, "but the little fellow was just as proud of it as could be. ”

“ O, yes, she believed in temperance; but she had some very strong notions about promises. She wanted her little boy to understand all about it whenever he made one, and then to keep it as he would the eighth commandment; and she said he was too young to take a pledge, that he could not understand what it meant, and he would think that signing his name to a paper was a light thing, just for play. ”

“ Like many of our great men, Lincoln was what we style a self-made man, and yet it seems that he owed something of his making to his stepmother. His own mother died when he was a small boy, and the new mother who sometime after came into the family was very helpful to the boy, encouraging him in his love of books, and under her guidance he became a great reader, devouring every book he could lay his hands upon. ”

“ It was then the express wagon stopped at the door, and a great box was carried in. "Janet Burns" was the name in heavy black letters on the box. It was a work of time to get it open. The hammer, axe, an old file and a big old knife each had to be tried in turn. But at last it was open and the treasures began to come out.
Oh! the wonders of that box. Two plump fat chickens bearing in their breasts a card on which was written: "We are cooked all ready to be eaten; or, if you like us hot, just plump us into the oven a few minutes, for it is a cold day and we have come fifty miles by train." ”

“ Why should not many who live in this land of light be shamed—not by the deed, but by the devotion of this poor heathen? Under the gentle law of Christ, we know that God's demand for the best we have only bids us use it for him, and devote it to him. ”

“ Now then, cut holes in your newspaper just large enough for a pair of eyes to see through. This is a nice job to do, as you will find out whoever does it for the first time. You will be quite surprised to see that your pair of holes look as if one eye was to be on the further side of the cheek, and, as the children say, "a mile too big," showing all the shading of eyelashes and brows. You must expect a shout at your expense as you triumphantly stand up to fit them to the one who is waiting to have them tried on him. ”

“ That the suffering child away from its mother can "cling to it day and night." O, children, is there any sacrifice too great to be made to have the blessed privilege of comforting Christ's little ones, and helping them bear their sufferings! ”

“ Think of that, you boys who are going steadily forward year after year, from the primary school through all the intermediate grades up to the advanced, then to the academy, thence to college, and afterwards to law and divinity schools, think of Abraham Lincoln's school privileges and be thankful for your own. ”

“ Now if you are tired of me and want to work alone, why, I mustn't force myself upon you."
[77]
"O, Jerry!" came in a reproachful murmur from Nettie, whose cheeks were now flaming.
"Well, what is a fellow to do? You see you hurt my feelings worse than old Mother Topknot did this morning when she pecked me; I want to belong, and I mean to; but all that kind of talk about helping to buy these half-dozen little puff-balls is all nonsense, and a girl of your sense ought to be ashamed of it." ”

“ This is the hardest trial of the missionaries' life—more than any physical deprivation—the being compelled to live among such people. It always makes me think what a long martyrdom the life of our blessed Saviour must have been on earth. It was not only that he saw and heard such things, but he knew every thought in the wicked hearts of those about him. ”

“ I know a boy who has taught himself to be so cross to his little sister that she actually cries sometimes, when she sees him coming. Yet he loves her, and would shed bitter tears if God where to take her away. ”

“ I've kept the rubbish in that bag going on to twenty years, just because the pretty girls where I used to do clear-starching, gave them to me. I had no kind of notion what I should ever do with them; but they looked bright and pretty, and I always was a master hand for bright colors, and so whenever they would hand out a bit of ribbon or lace, and say, 'Cerinthy, do you want that?' I was sure to say I did; and chuck it into this bag; and now to think after keeping of them for more than twenty years, my girl should be planning to make a bonnet out of them! Things is queer! ”

“ We can easily make heat pass from one thing into another, but when things which have different amounts of heat are put together the heat will spread itself around so as to make all of the same temperature. ”

“ And when we are inclined to condemn our beautiful queen, we must remember that she was educated by a bigoted mother, that she lived in bigoted times and that her advisers were sustained by the highest authority she recognized—the Papal court. ”

“ If you succeed in raising a P. S. company, an officer's badge will be sent you in place of the one you now have. The habit of using "by-words" seems to be growing among our young people, both girls and boys. I am glad for every one who joins the ranks to fight against it. ”

“ Said Nettie, "O, Jerry, I smell the potatoes; they are scorching!" and she ran away. Jerry looked after her a moment, as though astonished at the sudden change of subject, then laughed, and rising slowly from the nail-keg addressed himself to the hen.
"Now, Mother Topknot, I want you to understand that you belong to the firm; that little woman who was just here is your mistress, and if you peck her and scratch her as you did me, this morning, it will be the worse for you. You are just like some people I have seen; haven't sense enough to know who is your best friend ”

“ The badge for members will be the same as the officer's, with the exception of having no fringe and a silver pin.
And the Pansy will help. As it has always been glad to encourage those who are struggling up toward the light, so now it reaches forth its helping hand to those little ones who will rally bravely around it, to the work of putting down the evil, and the support of all things good and beautiful. ”

“ It makes the blood leap in one's veins to read or to tell it, and one longs to grasp the good sword and go out to fight in the great world with the noble army of martyrs who enroll themselves on the side of the weak and suffering. ”

“ Now I trust that none of us suppose for one instant that we have given one cent to the mission cause by coming here to eat our dinner and paying a small sum for it. That is purely a business transaction; these young people have earned the money, and I congratulate them upon their enterprise. Now I understand that they have several turkeys and ducks as well as [101] other things left over. And I wish to call out an expression from the friends here who have enjoyed their hospitality to-day. Shall we have our Christmas dinner prepared for us at the same place and under the same auspices? ”

“ George Edward made a wry face. Then he twisted his mouth up into a funny little pucker. "Let's make a candy bag and drop it at Tim Ryan's door to-morrow," he cried.
Tim Ryan was the man who took care of uncle Thomas' furnace, and swept out his store. He lived two blocks off in a dingy tenement house.
Effie closed her fingers involuntarily on her caramel with old-time fondness.
"Candy isn't good for poor folks," said Bamford sententiously, and cramming his mouth full of taffy.
"They get so little, it surprises their digestive apparatus," said uncle Thomas dryly. ”