her in a soft tone, "There, my little girl; I was afraid you might fall, and I didn't wish you to do so." Delia thanked him very kindly, and went up stairs to tell her mother. "Now, mother, I like the woodman very much, for he was so good to me," she said; 'may not I give him something?" 66 "What would you like to give him?" "That large red apple that you gave me this morning. Wouldn't that be nice?" said Delia. 66 Yes, that would do very well," answered her mother. Delia ran down and gave the apple, quite delighted. "Thank you; you're a good dear," said the wood-sawyer, as he received it; "and what shall I do with it? Wouldn't you like to have me give it to my poor little Johnny?" "Johnny! and who is Johnny?" My poor little boy, that is burnt and crippled by the fire. When he was a baby he was tied into a chair, and tipped himself over against the hot stove, and his clothes took fire, and he was sadly burned indeed. But he's a good little thing, and so loving; shall I give him the apple?" 66 Yes, indeed," said Delia; and she ran quickly back into the house, and with her mother's permission, brought out a little brown wooden-horse with a red soldier on his back. "There, give that to Johnny, too," said she; "for I'm sorry that he's so burnt." When the wood-sawyer returned home at night, little Johnny sat watching for him at the window; and when he gave him the horse and apple, Johnny thought he had never seen so fine a plaything as the horse, nor so large and red an apple before. He kissed his father and thanked him heartily; and then he kissed the horse and the soldier, and the apple too. When he learned who sent them to him, he said, "How good she is to me; how I should like to see her." "What are you going to do with your presents?" said his father. Johnny thought a moment: "I know what I shall do with the apple," he said. "Don't you know that big boy that looks in here and makes me cry sometimes, looking so ill natured, shrivelling up one side of his face, and drawing his head down to his shoulders, as if trying to make fun of me because I am so burnt, and my head is all drawn to one side by the fire don't you know that boy?" "Jim Norton, do you mean?" asked the father; "that bad fellow that I drove away from the window last week? You don't like him so much, do you?" "Not so much; but I want him to like me. I want to show him that I don't hate him because he tries to make me feel my misfortune, and makes fun of what I can't help, and what I am sometimes so sorry for, though I know I ought not to complain, for God permitted it, and he knew it was best for me." hate you. The next day little Johnny watched at the window, and when he saw the bad boy that tried to make fun of his misfortune, he beckoned to him to come nearer. 66 Here, Jim," said Johnny," here's a nice apple. I don't Won't you love me now, Jim?" The bad boy reddened with shame and To use Bible words, Johnny had heaped coals of fire upon his head." He could not take the apple. "No, little boy," he said, "I don't want your apple. I can get apples." guilt. 66 66 Yes, I want you to take it," said Johnny; "then you won't hate me, perhaps." The apple was tempting, and Jim took it; but as he went away, he thought, "What a good boy that Johnny is, when I've acted so to him. I'm sorry I took his apple, for I don't suppose he gets half as many as I do. I wish he had it back again." He could not eat the apple, so he took it home and divided it among his brothers and sisters, which was a new thing for him to do. He made no more ugly faces at Johnny, and soon began to smile as he passed his window; and Johnny, as you might know, was very glad to see the change in him, and always smiled pleasantly in return. Jim Norton sometimes thought, "I wish I had something to give Johnny. I ought to give to him, rather than he to me." Then he thought, "I have sometimes earned a few pence for myself by selling shavings: why can't I earn some for Johnny?" He set about it, and sold two baskets of shavings. With the pence so gained, he bought a few hickory nuts and some sugar-plums. He gave them to Johnny, and was never so happy in his life before. He was now by degrees growing generous and kind to every body, but particularly to Johnny, for he felt something like gratitude towards him, and he was learning to pity him and love him. When the spring came, he brought him green boughs and flowers, which he gathered for him whenever he went into the fields beyond the city. One day he told Johnny of a plan he had to snare a little bird and bring it to him, so that he might hear its fine song in his own room, since he was lame and could not go out into the fields and woods, and was so often alone; but Johnny said, "No, Jim; it is hard enough for me to be so shut up here, and I'm used to it since I was a baby. The bird isn't used to it, and it would be very dreadful for it; I don't want any thing to be miserable for me; I shouldn't be happy. I'd rather not, Jim. enough." The flowers you bring me are So Jim left the birds to sing in freedom in the pleasant woods, but he took up a root of pretty sweet-briar and planted it in a little pot, and set it in Johnny's window; and though it does not bloom very often, it is always fresh and sweet, like the odour of good deeds. Have not you noticed, little reader, how, in this story, one little good act brought on another and another, till there was quite a chain of kind deeds? There are little good acts for you to do all the time. Be sure you do them; and who knows what may come of them? A little seed makes a great tree when God smiles on it. CHILD'S HYMN. JESUS, God, to children dear, Thou, on earth, did'st bless our race, Now, O Heavenly Father kind, Thou art to us ever good, P. H. |