Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

"Endeavour then, my beloved ones, so to act that the eye of God may be ever turned to you in kindness, for you cannot escape that eye, my children; and if it is dreadful to you for me to look angrily upon you, how much more terrible would it be to have the eye of your Maker fixed upon you in displeasure? But God grant that this may never be the case, my children."

Our beloved father then gave us leave to amuse ourselves in any way we pleased, and the next minute we set ourselves to plan our little pleasures.

And first, we made a hermitage, with moss and stones, and I made a hermit to put into it with a little piece of cloth and some black silk; and then, when this was done, Robert got out his knife and some bits of sticks, and made a little boat, with a mast and sails, the rigging being of coarse thread; and while he was thus employed, I read aloud.

We were sitting on the grass; the birds were singing, and the bees were humming, and the waters rippling; and little Sally looked in my face, and wondered at the marvellous things I was reading about, for it was the account of Robinson Crusoe's parrot, and the wonderful manner in which he had taught the poor bird to repeat his name, in order that he might hear something like a human voice in that solitary desert.

At one o'clock our dear parents called us to dine upon what Cæsar had brought; and after dinner, because the sun was then quite off the glade, we amused ourselves by more active games. Robert was a hare, and we were hounds; and then again he was a wolf, and we were sheep; and we ran and screamed till the woods rang again with our playful cries, and the very echoes of the valley began to join in our cries. From time to time, however, our father called to us, cautioning us not to be too rough with each other, and bidding us avoid such and such parts of the glade, where we might by chance injure ourselves with the thorny brakes, or the rough stones which lay concealed among the moss; and thus our father's presence was our protection, and we were kept in safety, and our happiness and sense of security were increased by the consciousness of that presence.

At length, however, having run ourselves out of breath, we sat down near the bottom of the glade, not very far from the bridge and the brook; and there, while we were sitting quietly, in order to recover our

selves, we heard a voice calling to us from over the water, and, looking the way from which the voice came, we saw Master Billy and Miss Maria.

"Robert," said Billy, "come here; I want you to see how I can make these pebbles spin along the water, just as if the brook were frozen."

“I must not come, Billy,” replied Robert; "papa and mamma are on the hill, and we must not go out of their sight: if you want me, you must come to me.'

[ocr errors]

"Not go out of their sight! What is the use of that?" asked Master Billy. "Don't be a fool, Robert; how am I to spin the pebbles from where you sit? Come this way only just to the bridge; one would think you were only two years old, and in leading-strings still." And then he turned to his sister, and set up a loud laugh, adding, "I say, Maria, he's afraid of getting out of his father's sight-a'n't he a great baby?"

"I don't like him to laugh at me," remarked Robert, looking very red.

"Well, but wo'n't you come ?" said Master Billy. "Oh you are afraid of papa being angry: why don't you get mamma to tie you to her apron-string, like a pair of scissors? What are you afraid of?”

Robert looked more angry; and I, seeing his anger, took upon me to answer, and said, "You are a naughty boy, Master Billy, to try to persuade Robert to do what papa has bid him not do. We are safe and happy when papa's eye is upon us, and we are not so safe when papa is not looking at us; and Robert will not go to you, and so you need not call him."

"You are not to say that my brother is a naughty boy, miss," said Maria; "he is as good as your brother, I am sure, and much better too; and he is not such a baby neither; he may go where he pleases, and do what he pleases; he is not afraid of being out of his papa's sight."

"I am not afraid," said Robert, getting up from the bank where he had been sitting; "I am not to say afraid of any thing; only I know that when papa is looking at me while I am at play, that I shall not do any thing very wrong, and that makes me happy."

"Do hear him!" cried Master Billy, who by that time was come with his sister as far as the middle of the bridge. "Do hear him! He is not afraid, and yet he is afraid! Pretty little master, he does not dare to go out

of his father's sight, and yet he is eight years old!”— And the naughty boy stood in the middle of the bridge, defying poor Robert, and daring him to come to him, repeating his taunting expressions, till my brother, being overcome by passion, sprang forward, and running beyond his bounds, rushed to meet William, saying, "Get off the bridge, this minute; you shall see whether I dare."

"I shall not go back a step, Master Robert," said Billy; "here I stand, touch me if you dare."

I cannot say who began the battle; but the next minute the two boys were at high blows in the middle of the bridge, while every plank groaned and cracked under their feet. Maria, who was also on the bridge, ran back to the other side; and little Sally and I made the woods ring with our cries. Cæsar, at the same time, sprang up from his place at my father's feet, and came bounding down towards the water, and my father was after him and with us almost as soon; but not so soon but that the mischief which might be expected was complete, the bridge had given way in the middle, and the two boys were struggling in the water under its ruins.

All this had been brought about almost in less time than I have taken to speak of it. And our father and Cæsar had scarcely come up when they dashed into the water, and, while Cæsar was dragging my brother to the land, my father helped out the other boy, and set him on the opposite bank, bidding him go home with all speed.

My father then carried my brother over the brook, for Cæsar had brought him out on the wrong side; and then, advising my mother to return home with us by the way of another bridge, which was at least half a mile below, he walked straight home with my brother; and there was an end, for that day, of that scheme which had begun so pleasantly.

Sally and I walked home very silently with our mamma; and when we got home, we found our papa sitting in his study, by a fire, and poor Robert in a corner of the same study, placed on a stool, and looking very unhappy-they had both changed their clothes.

"I hope you have not caught cold, my dear,” said my

mother.

I think not, my love," replied my papa; "and I hope Robert will also escape: but Robert is not to be spoken

to till to-morrow; he has been disobedient, and he is sorry; he asked me very humbly that he might not be sent out of my sight, and I am pleased with him, because he had rather be with me, though I am angry, than be parted from me. I hope, when he is a man, that should he ever feel that he has justly offended his God, he will rather cling to him, though angry, than endeavour to fly from him. Dreadful is the state of that creature who, like Cain, would desire to fly from the presence of his God."

Our mother did not answer; but little Sally and I both knelt at our father's feet, and begged for our brother; and Robert knelt too, in his corner, for he did not dare to come near to us; and after a little while, our dear papa granted our petition, and pardoned his little boy. But the events of that day were ever fixed upon our minds, and the lesson which they were calculated to convey was never forgotten by us, namely, that if little children are most safe and happy in the presence of their parents, so persons in advanced life should ever seek to be present in spirit with their heavenly Father, and to make this their perpetual prayer (Psalm li., 11), Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

THE RED BOOK.

I AM One of several happy sisters, living in the house in which we were born, and partaking of every comfort which children can enjoy under a tender parent's roof.

I have two sisters older than myself, and as many younger; and, in order to give my reader an idea of our ages, I must add, that we are all in our teens, though our eldest sister will soon arrive at the dignity of being twenty years of age.

སྐ

We live in the country, but within a pleasant walk of one of the prettiest towns in England; and if we have the privilege of attending an excellent preacher in the town, we have also the delight of seeing some of the most beautiful works of God from the windows of our house. There are two rooms, opening into each other, at the top of the house, which our kind parents have given up entirely to us. In these we have each a bed, a chair, and a chest of drawers; and, in cold weather, we are allowed a fire in one of these rooms. We have each of us, also, a table, with a small looking-glass upon it; and we are required to keep every thing in the exactest order. My place in these rooms is, I consider, far the most pleasant, though my sisters do not agree with me, and that you will say is quite as well; for if all human beings had the same tastes, there would be more quarrels in the world than there are now, which would by no means be desirable, for there is no family on earth which does not occasionally suffer from the ill temper of its members; but this will not be so in heaven, for there we shall all be one in Christ, and be of one mind and one spirit. But I was saying that I like my own place better than that of my sisters, and for this reason-I have a window entirely to myself; it is a casement window indeed, projecting from the roof, but it looks down over all the trees in the garden into a valley, through which winds a little river, not a navigable one indeed, but on that account the more delightfully solitary and retired from the haunts of men, and in the meadows are sheep and cattle feeding. In the remote horizon is a range of blue hills, and between the

« PoprzedniaDalej »