The Hard Lesson
A young girl crying while another girl and their teacher looks on.
“I can nev-er, nev-er learn it,” said Bell; and she burst in-to tears.
“Car-rie has learned it,” said Miss Gray; “and I am sure you can. Try, try a-gain.”
“Yes, Bell,” said Car-rie; “and then per-haps we can have a romp in the hay-field. You will have to hur-ry, for the men are cart-ing it in-to the barn.”
Thus urged, Bell made a fresh ef-fort; and soon the les-son was learned and re-cit-ed.
Off scam-pered the two girls to the hay-field. Soon Miss Gray fol-lowed, but there was noth-ing to be seen of them. She looked all a-bout, and at last walked up to the man who was load-ing the hay on the cart.
Two men working on a hay wagon with a woman asking a question of them.
“Can you see an-y thing of two lit-tle girls from where you are?” she asked.
“I don’t see them,” he an-swered, stand-ing up and look-ing a-round.
Miss Gray turned a-way, when all at once she heard a laugh be-hind her. She looked back, and there were the laugh-ing fa-ces of Bell and Car-rie. They had been on the cart, all hid-den un-der the hay in or-der to play a lit-tle joke on Miss Gray. Then they scram-bled down, and came run-ning to her.
The man on the cart smiled to see their fun. Then he said sadly, “Dear me, I wish my lit-tle lass could run a-bout like that.”
A girl in bed being handed a kitten by a girl while two women and another girl with a second kitten are nearby.
“Is she ill?” asked Car-rie.
“Yes,” said the man; “but she is get-ting bet-ter now.”
“We’ll ask mam-ma to take us to see her,” said Bell.
The ver-y next day their mam-ma did take them. They found Ruth sit-ting pil-lowed up in a chair, ver-y pale and white. Bell had picked her a bunch of flow-ers, which she seemed ver-y glad to get; and the three girls soon be-came good friends. Car-ree found a lit-tle gray kitten with which she played.
The vis-it seemed to do Ruth a great deal of good; for a pink flush came in her cheeks, and she e-ven laughed, which her moth-er said she had not done before for weeks.
They came a-gain the ver-y next day. Miss Gray was with them, and car-ried a bas-ket on her arm in which were some dain-ties to tempt the sick girl’s ap-pe-tite. She was glad to see them, and told them they should have the kit-ten for their ver-y own. So pus-sy went back in the bas-ket which had brought the dain-ties.
Near-ly ev-er-y day af-ter this the chil-dren went to see Ruth, for at least a week. By that time she was well e-nough to be out, and some-times came to see them.
At least twenty-six toddlers clustered around something at the back of a room.
What is it that these lit-tle tots are all so anx-ious to see? It must be a Christ-mas-tree.