The True Way to Be Happy
How often Grace and Nellie had heard these words.
“I’m sick to death of them,” said Nellie. “I am going to try to have the most fun I can to-morrow, and I’ll risk but what I’ll be happy enough.”
“And I am going to try grandma’s way of having fun to-morrow. Just for a change, I am going to do everything ‘exactly right.’ She seems so sure that that way is the best. Do you suppose there are any good plays or jolly times for little girls who always do every thing ‘perfectly right?’”
“Why, no, Gracie! You know that if you are going to be very good to-morrow, you ought to sew on papa’s handkerchief, so as to finish it for his birthday present. I can’t finish mine, for I’ve planned to go sailing on Tom’s raft on the duck pond. I shall take all my dolls, land on the little island, and pull of my shoes and stockings, and play I am Robinson Crusoe, and the ducks will be the savages, and when they come swimming towards me, I shall hide in the bushes, or else jump on the raft and push out to sea. You had better come too, and be my man Friday.”
“But, Nellie, you know mamma said for us not to play on the duck pond, for we always wet our feet.”
“Yes; but I shall wear rubbers this time, and it was last week she said that; she did not say we should not play there to-morrow.”
“Well! You must play there alone, for I am going to try grandma’s way of being happy for one whole day, and if I don’t like it, next day I will play on the duck pond.”
These two little girls were twin sisters, eight years old. They were pretty, bright, and full of fun, and now they were going to have a week’s vacation; a whole week without study, and they had planned plays enough to last most little girls three weeks.
But last night grandma had told them a long and interesting story about a boy who always did just as he pleased in every thing. He was selfish and disobedient, but he was never happy. At last he was so unhappy and miserable, that he made up his mind to give up his naughty ways and to be a good boy, and behold, everything was changed.
“So you see, my dears, as I have often told you, in order to be happy, you must be good.”
NELLIE LEFT AT HOME.
“I am sick of that sort of stories,” said Nellie.
“I am going to try for one day to see if I can be happy by being good,” said Gracie thoughtfully.
The next morning dawned bright and warm.
“Such a lovely day for my play,” said Nellie, as she tucked a big piece of cake in her pocket, and with her arms full of dollies, went dancing off across the fields to the pond.
“That child can’t be going to the pond, after all I said the other day,” said mamma, glancing anxiously after Nellie.
“Oh no!” said grandma. “She is probably going to play in the grove by the side of it.”
“And so my little Grace is going to finish her present for papa’s birthday,” said mamma with a pleased look at the little girl, who was stitching away in the window.
“I feel a little bit happy now,” thought Gracie, as she saw her mother’s smiling face. But it was a long hour, and the little fingers felt very lame before the handkerchief was done, but at last the last stitch was taken, and it was carefully folded and a card marked, “Papa from Gracie,” pinned on it, all ready to put by his plate to-morrow morning at breakfast.
“Children, do you want to go with me to spend the day at aunt Mary’s?” calls papa, from the doorway. “Just put on your hats; the horse is harnessed, and I am waiting. Where is Nellie?”
At that moment Nellie came in at the door, wet and dirty, with the blood dropping from a cut on her forehead, and crying bitterly.
“Oh, my poor little girl, where have you been?” said mamma, as she wiped the blood from her face.
“I was Robinson Crusoe,” sobbed Nellie, “and the cake was my provisions, and when the savages saw my cake they came swimming and flying all on to my raft; then I tried to push them off, and I tumbled right into the water and mud, and they got my cake; and my dollies are drowned.”
“So you went to the duck pond to play; you knew better than that,” said mamma sternly.
“If she has disobeyed you, she must stay at home,” said papa. “Come, Gracie!”
In a moment they were driving along the beautiful shady road that led to aunt Mary’s. At first, Gracie felt too sorry for Nellie to be very happy. But her father, noticing her sad face, told her that if Nellie was a good girl, he would take her next week, and then he told so many funny stories about himself when he was a little boy, that it was not long before she was laughing merrily.
What a welcome they had at aunt Mary’s.
“We knew you were coming to-day,” said Katie, who was Gracie’s cousin, “and we are freezing ice-cream down cellar.”
Then they took their dolls and played happily together all day long. When Gracie was riding home she told her father that she had never had such a happy day before in her life.
“Oh, such a lovely time as I have had!” she exclaimed, as she bounded into the house.
Grandma was rocking Nellie in her arms, and was just finishing her evening story.
“And so you see, my dear, that just as soon as Jacob made up his mind to be a good boy, all his troubles ended. Everybody loved him, and he was very happy and good.”
“I like your kind of stories to-night, grandma,” said Nellie softly, in the old lady’s ear, “and I am going to be good to be happy all the rest of the week.”
“Say all the rest of your life, my dear,” whispered back grandma.