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A STITCH IN TIME.”

'A STITCH IN TIME.'

HAVE you ever noticed how

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a small rentai t in a dress, just a little hole which you think you may mend at any time, widens and lengthens till it is quite a serious matter to fill it up? How many more stitches do you think would be needed a couple of days after some skirt has been torn, than would have been wanted at first? I am sure I cannot tell; the proverb says, "One stitch in time saves nine, but I rather think ninety would be more correct. At all events, Sarah Jones did not wish to run the risk of a long seam, instead of a short one, when her sister Annie's frock required mending. Annie had not so many dresses as some of my young friends have, so there was the more need to make them last as long as possible. Sarah knew very well that every one of them cost her worthy father a good deal; wages were low, and there were many coats and frocks to be bought for the children in her cottage home. Sarah was not the eldest of the family; there were two big brothers' older than she was, and there were five little ones,' boys and girls, a good deal younger. But then, boys could not sew, Sarah thought, however old they were, and her sisters were too young to expect any thing of them.

Mrs. Jones very seldom had a holiday, but it so happened that she had been invited to visit an old friend not many miles off. There was a cheap excursion train in that direction, and Sarah joined her father in begging her mother to go.

'Sarah will make a splendid little house keeper,' Robert Jones had said, ‘and she'll have the house all right when you come home.'

Although Sarah was glad to think of her mother having a few days pleasure (the return ticket was from Friday till Monday), she could not help feeling a little anxious in having the charge of the household, but she promised to do her very best. It was all settled at length, and with a small bundle and a little packet of sweetmeats for the children at her friend's house, Mrs. Jones set out.

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When Saturday morning came, Sarah set herself with all her might to do what she could of the usual work of the day. The dresser and chairs were scrubbed and scoured, the little kitchen range blackened and brightened in a wonderful manner, and the boards of the wooden floor, though they did not look so pure as under her mother's hands, showed the young worker had worked with a will. Fortunately there was some chance of their being kept clean, at least till evening, for Robert Jones had gone to spend the afternoon with a fellow workman, the children were away on a bramble expedition, and Sarah earnestly hoped might not make their appearance for a while.

Bessie Smith, a slatternly girl who had a sick mother, whom she ought to have been helping to finish up the week's work, had looked in for a moment, and begged Sarah to come out for a walk. I would not be tied like that,' said she, 'on a lovely day like this, and your mother out of the way, too.'

But little did Bessie know of the pleasure of doing what is right, rather than what is pleasant. Sarah knew better. She resisted all entreaties to leave her post, and was glad when Bessie departed.

Tired as Sarah was, she knew there was little Annie's dress, which, if not mended now, would be sure to need a great deal more mending by and bye. She had heard her mother say, as Annie took it off last Sunday, "That frock is wearing out fast, but I daresay it will stand a patch yet if I only had time to do it.' 'Now,' said Sarah to herself, 'I'll do it, and mother will be so glad when she sees it done.'

Let not my young readers think that this was a dull way of spending a holiday. An old English poet has said,

'Who sweeps a room, as for God's law,
Makes that and the action fine.'

What we do is great and noble, according to the spirit, and motive as it is called, with which it is done. A desire to please father and mother, and better still, the God of love who gives us parents, home, and every blessing, is the highest motive of all,

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Among his school-fellows he was a great favourite in fact, he was the leader of his class. One of the gifts which made him so popular, was his power of telling stories. His companions used to meet together and wait for Davy's arrival. If a cart was at the place unused, Davy would get into it and delight his hearers with tales of wonders and horrors. The material for his narratives was got from books like the 'Arabian Nights,' and from old people who had a stock of stories. These Davy improved by his imaginative powers, and succeeded in charming his audiences.

When he began to make experiments in chemistry, his instruments were very few and simple. He had not the money to procure expensive articles. But with the means at his disposal he was able to cultivate and increase his taste for such studies; and although he had few advantages, his perseverance made his progress very rapid. Perseverance can conquer almost any

difficulties.

Davy, like all good men, showed a great love for his parents. His father died when forty-seven years old, leaving his wife to bring up five children. Humphry was the oldest, being sixteen years of age at that time. Seeing his mother's distress, he told her not to grieve, because he would 'Do all in his power for his brothers and sisters.'

Another event shows how cool and selfpossessed he was. A dog which seemed to be mad bit him in the leg. Knowing what an awful death such a bite sometimes causes, Davy cut out the part of flesh torn by the dog, and applied caustic to the wound. In this way his calmness probably saved his life, for otherwise the poison from the bite would likely have entered his blood.

The incident which led me to choose Davy as our example of a trustful boy, happened during his schooldays. The

master was a good one, and showed by his conduct that he wished to treat the boys with kindness. He allowed them freely to use a particular room for play, and the scholars at last came to regard this room as their right. A poor man came to the

school one day asking help, and was found to be too ill to send away. The master put him into the play-room, and when the doctor visited him it was discovered that he was suffering from small-pox. Not wishing to alarm the boys, the master assembled them, and said that no one was to go near the room: he had a good reason for forbidding them, but as he could not tell them it just now, he hoped they would trust him. The boys were very curious to know the reason: some declared they had a right to the room, and were for forcing their way in. Davy opposed this. He said that their teacher had always been kind, and that they should trust him when he said he had a good reason for his command. By his firm stand, Davy won the day; and when the beggar recovered and the boys learned why they were excluded from the room, they felt the master was right, and that Davy had acted manfully in what he had done.

We have now reached the close of another year, and our series of Famous Boys' is at an end. Let us learn the lesson of great men's lives, and although we may not be great like them, we shall please our Father in heaven. Soon we shall be starting on a fresh year; let us resolve to live in it with trust in our Master in heaven just as Davy trusted his master on earth. We know He loves us though at times He does not tell us why His treatment is sometimes hard to bear. Let us form the resolution which Davy wrote in a note-book:-'I have neither riches nor power, nor birth to recommend me; yet, if I live, I trust I shall not be of less service to mankind and to my friends than if I had been born with these advantages.' And in order that we may be able to do this, let us offer the prayer which our Famous Boy' in the November 'Dayspring,' John Kitto, offered exactly sixty years ago, on Jan. 1, 1821-Welcome, 1821! Though thy greeting is but rough (uncommonly cold), boding a year of as great events as thy predecessor, I pray God that, as I am conscious I have but ill performed my duty as an accountable being the preceding

GLASGOW.

year, and that my lot in life is but low, He will deign to look on the most humble of His creatures, and blot out of the book of His remembrance the sins I have committed heretofore; to endue me with fortitude to bear with resignation whatsoever misfortunes may yet assail me, and to enable me to resist temptation, the allurements of vice, and even my own thoughts when they lead to ill; and to enable me, if it be His pleasure, to drink the cup of misfortune to the very dregs, without repining; and, finally, through all my life to make me bear in mind that this life is but a probationary trial to fit us for a greater and a better state hereafter.'

J. M'M.

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ONE, -The year is dying fast. Do we think of all it has brought us, as we stand among its snows? Of its daily gifts of love and hope sometimes perhaps of sorrow? For who

knows how often its sorrows were the 'veiled angels' of God?

But only its happiness must fill our hearts as the Christmas time draws near.

For Christmas commemorates that gift of God which is of all gifts the dearestthe gift of His great love.

'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.'

So the people of all the Christian lands are glad at Christmas time. It is a time of gifts, and of love and good will.

It is especially a time to remember the poor with gifts. In the cold winter streets you pass them day by day, the poor, worn sad faces that have none to comfort them.

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You are haunted by shrill little pitiful voices which you cannot turn into music, and by worn, pinched child lips which you cannot brighten to a smile.

I know how the first glimpses of bitter cold and want fall on the sensitive childheart that has never known either. I know the secret agony of tears which many a little one has shed because of some miserable starved face dumbly begging alms on the street. The little one wrapped from the cold had nothing to give but its sorrow.

Then give tenderness and pity if you have nothing else to give; do not fear to shed on the want-stricken face at least endearments from your eyes.

Never add the weight of a straw to one whom God has stricken by scorn or harshness or rudeness.

And if you have but a mite,give it with gentleness and courtesy-with the same sweet consideration you would give to one beloved.

For the poor have enough of sorrow, and the little poor children learn the hardness of life all too soon. And if you cannot give the help of the loaves and the fishes, perhaps you may at least shed some little trembling ray of possible love and loveliness from the kingdom of beauty and love.

God gives the violets and the roses, as well as the barley and the wheat, and touches our hearts as tenderly through the flowers as through the garnered grain.

But I only remind you of this to comfort you when you have nothing else to give; never to make you selfishly believe it is enough. Enough is a hard word which love can

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never use.

'Love gives because it delights in giving. That is how God gives.'

So short a letter, and the last I shall write this year. Yet I think I have said nearly all. Little one, love and trust and may God bless us both and lead us safely home. Let us pray day by day, 'Keep us without sin, Jesus who died for us.'

'We do not ask Thy will to understand,
Our way to see;

Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand
And follow Thee.'

H. W. H. W.

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