Part 19 (1/2)

LXX.

When the goodman mends his armor, And trims his helmet's plume; When the goodwife's shuttle merrily Goes flas.h.i.+ng through the loom; With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Lord Macaulay's ballad should be known by heart by every schoolboy. It is the finest of the famous ”Lays of Ancient Rome.”]

A Bit of Brightness.

BY MARY JOANNA PORTER.

It not only rained, but it poured; so the brightness was certainly not in the sky. It was Sunday, too, and that fact, so Phoebe thought, added to the gloominess of the storm. For Phoebe had left behind her the years in which she had been young and strong, and in which she had no need to regard the weather. Now if she went out in the rain she was sure to suffer afterward with rheumatism, so, of course, a day like this made her a prisoner within doors. There she had not very much to occupy her. She and her husband, Gardener Jim, lived so simply that it was a small matter to prepare and clear away their meals, and, that being attended to, what was there for her to do?

Phoebe had never been much of a scholar, and reading even the coa.r.s.e-print Bible, seemed to try her eyes. Knitting on Sunday was not to be thought of, and there was n.o.body pa.s.sing by to be watched and criticised. Altogether Phoebe considered it a very dreary day.

As for Gardener Jim, he had his pipe to comfort him. All the same he heaved a sigh now and then, as if to say, ”O dear! I wish things were not quite so dull.”

In the big house near by lived Jim's employer, Mr. Stevens. There matters were livelier, for there were living five healthy, happy children, whose mother scarcely knew the meaning of the word quiet. When it drew near two o'clock in the afternoon they were all begging to be allowed to go to Sunday-school.

”You'll let me go, won't you, ma?” cried Jessie, the oldest, and Tommy and Nellie and Johnny and even baby Clara echoed the pet.i.tion. Mrs.

Stevens thought the thing over and decided that Jessie and Tommy might go. For the others, she would have Sunday-school at home.

”Be sure to put on your high rubbers and your water-proofs and take umbrellas.” These were the mother's instructions as the two left the family sitting-room. A few moments after, Jessie looked in again. ”Well, you are wrapped up!” exclaimed Mrs. Stevens, ”I don't think the storm can hurt you.” ”Neither do I, ma, and Oh! I forgot to ask you before, may we stop at Gardener Jim's on the way home?”

”Yes, if you'll be careful not to make any trouble for him and Phoebe, and will come home before supper-time.”

Tommy, who was standing behind Jessie in the doorway, suppressed the hurrah that rose to his lips. He remembered that it was Sunday and that his mother would not approve of his making a great noise on the holy day.

He and Jessie had quite a hard tramp to the little chapel in which the school was held. The graveled sidewalks were covered with that uncomfortable mixture of snow and water known as slush, which beside being wet was cold and slippery, so that walking was no easy thing. Yet what did that matter after they had reached the school?

Their teachers were there, and so was the superintendent, and so were nearly half of the scholars. Theirs was a wide-awake school, you see, and it did not close on account of weather.

Each of the girls in Jessie's cla.s.s was asked to recite a verse that she had chosen through the week. Jessie's was this:

”To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices G.o.d is well pleased.”

The teacher talked a little about it and Jessie thought it over on her way to Gardener Jim's. The result was that she said to her brother:

”Tommy, you know mother said we must not trouble Jim and Phoebe.”

”Yes, I know it, but I don't think we will, do you?”

”No, I'm sure they'll be glad to see us, but I was thinking we might do something to make them very glad. Suppose that while we're in there, I read to them from the Bible, and then we sing to them two or three of our hymns.”

”What a queer girl you are, Jess! Anybody would think that you were a minister going to hold church in the cottage. But I'm agreed, if you want to; I like singing anyway. It seems to let off a little of the 'go'

in a fellow.”