1. POOR OLD BROWNIE.

1. “What a sharp night it is, Peter, to be sure!” said a pale woman to her husband, as she sat rocking her baby in its cradle by the fire.

2. She had been but poorly, and had felt the cold very much. “Very sharp, indeed!” said her husband. “I feel pains in all my poor old bones.”

3. “If you and I feel cold here,” said he, “by the warm fire, after our good supper, what must it be outside, for those poor souls that have nothing to eat, and no fire?”

4. “Ah, bad indeed!” said his wife. “And for the poor dumb beasts, too. How glad I am that we had that nice dry house made for the cow this summer, and the new place for the cocks and hens!

5. “They would have been half frozen under that broken roof as it used to be when we first came here.”

6. Her eldest child, a little-girl, looked up from her knitting. “The hens are all quite snug, mother, Fluffy and Biddy and the rest. I peeped in just now, after they were gone to roost.”

7. “You are always a kind little one to the dumb things,” said her father, stroking the soft brown head of Mercy, who had just spoken. “And so is my little Nelly, too,” he added, looking fondly at the second child, who sat on his knee.

8. “It is getting late for the children, Peter,” said his wife. “Shall Mercy read a bit, before we go to bed?” So Mercy, who was a good scholar, took the Bible from the shelf and read aloud a few verses which her father found for her.

9. They told of the manger, and of how the ox and the ass stood by one bitter night like this, when the infant Christ was laid in it long ago. “Thank you, dear,” said her mother, when Mercy had done. “Now run up to your warm bed.”

10. “Oh look, Mercy, how nice!” cried little Nelly, “we have got a new blanket!” “That is because the squire sent it to mother; a big new thick one,” said her sister. “How warm we shall be!”

11. Nelly began to make great haste, while Mercy went to the window and looked out.

“How thick the snow is!” she said. “And how white it looks in the moonshine!

12. “But what is that dark thing standing by the old shed?” Nelly ran up and pressed her little face against the window to peep out too. “Why, it is a donkey!” she cried. “How did it get there?”

13. “I tell you what,” said Mercy, “it is our poor old Brownie, that father sold last week to Mr. Smith, that he might pay the doctor’s bill with the money.

14. “He had spent all we had in getting things for mother when she was ill, you know, and in bread for us. So poor Brownie had to go.”

15. “Why does he not go into the shed? How stupid of him to stand there! And why did he not stay with Mr. Smith, I wonder?”

“I suppose he could not help thinking about us, and that is why he came back,” said Mercy. “Perhaps Mr. Smith has no little girls to pet him, and maybe he is not so good to him as father was.”

Write: Two little girls went to their warm beds. As they looked out at the window they saw a donkey. It stood out in the cold.

Questions: 1. What sort of night did Peter think it was? 2. What was his wife so glad to think of? 3. What did Mercy say about the hens’ house? 4. What did the children see when they looked out at the window? 5. What did Mercy think was the reason why the donkey had come back?

2. A KIND ACT.

1. Mercy and her little sister watched at the window for a minute or two more, but the creature did not move.

2. And Mercy cried out, “Oh, I quite forgot! Of course, the shed door is shut! Father has put his tools there, his spade and rake.

3. “When Brownie was sold the straw which was his bed was taken out, and some sacks of corn and barley were kept there instead.

4. “Poor Brownie! I dare say he wonders why his nice old house is shut up so that he cannot get in!”

5. “I will give him some bread from my breakfast in the morning, because it is Christmas Day,” said little Nelly. “He will like that, won’t he?”

6. Her sister made no answer, but, moving from the window, she took down from a peg her hat and thick jacket. She put them on.

7. “Why, Mercy!” said Nelly, who looked with much surprise at what her sister was doing; “what are you doing? You cannot be going out now in the snow?”

8. “Do not make a noise,” said Mercy. “You know that mother is not well, and perhaps she is just dropping off to sleep. I cannot bear to leave him freezing out there all night, Christmas Eve and all!

9. “I could not creep under the warm blanket and forget him. No one will see him but us, for only our window looks this way. So I am just going to run out and get the shed open for him.”

10. “Oh, sister, you will be so cold! Cannot you ask father to go?”

“Oh, you heard him say that he had pains in all his bones. Now be a good child, Nelly, and get quick into bed. I shall soon be back.”

11. With these words Mercy tied on a great scarf which was once her father’s round her neck, crept down stairs without making the least noise, and out at the back door.

12. Once out of shelter of the house, it was, as she thought with a shiver, “a bitter night.” The snow was no longer falling, but a keen wind swept over the white face of the earth and stirred up the snow.

13. It piled heaps of it up into strange shapes. The frost was so hard that the feet of the child did not sink into it as she ran along.

14. Very soon she reached the shed, outside of which the donkey stood, a picture of patient despair. She plunged through a great heap of drifted snow and reached its side. She patted his rough coat.

15. “Oh, Brownie,” she cried, “how cold you are! I must get this door open for you somehow.” She pulled it, she jerked it, she kicked it, she shook down showers of snow on herself, and that was all.

16. It was in vain to try. It was frozen hard, and do what she would, she could not stir it an inch. It was hopeless. “Oh, what can I do for you, Brownie?” she thought, ready to cry with grief.

17. “I do so wish you were not so big, and I could take you up the stairs into our bed-room!” And Mercy half laughed at the idea of taking the donkey to bed with her.

18. She gave one last, hard hit and a rattle at the unkind door. “I cannot get it open, Brownie, and I must go home again. It will not do you any good if I stay out here with you.”

19. Slowly the child moved away. If it had seemed cold when she first came out, it seemed ten times colder now. And she saw the sad look which the poor beast cast after her when she left him. Mercy could not forget it.

Write: Mercy went out into the cold that she might open the shed door. She wished to let the donkey in. But she could not open it.

Questions: 1. What did Mercy remember about the shed? 2. What did she put on? 3. Where did she go? 4. What was the weather like outside the house? 5. What did she find on trying to open the shed door? 6. What was it that Mercy could not forget?

3. THE OLD SHED.

1. All of a sudden, as Mercy had quite made up her mind to leave Brownie, and was half way across the yard to her own door, a thought struck her.

2. There was an old shed which had once been the stable of a donkey, quite at the far end of the garden.

3. Her father had turned it into a pigsty; but he had left off keeping pigs for some time. It was a clean place, for Peter did not let his pigs live in a dirty sty as some people do.

4. Some dry straw was in it, and some roots stored for the winter. It would be just the place if only she could get Brownie there.

5. In a moment she turned back to hurry again over the heap of snow to the place where the donkey still stood. He could do nothing for himself to make things better.

6. All that he could do was to bear them without any complaint. Poor thing! He was stiff with cold, and seemed not to wish to move. But Mercy knew what was for his good.

7. She meant to do what was best for poor Brownie, whether he knew it or not. So she talked to him, patted him, and coaxed him till at last he let her lead him down to the old shed at the bottom of the garden.

8. “This is lucky for you, Brownie,” cried she, feeling very proud at her success. There was a bundle of hay in one corner, of which she shook down a nice soft armful.

9. And then she gave Brownie one good brisk rubbing with some of the straw, to warm them both. She made him a bed of straw too.

10. Brownie was glad to nibble a mouthful while this was being done. Then she took some fine carrots from a shelf, and put them in front of him. Oh, how Brownie did munch those fresh juicy roots!

11. Lastly, she found a bucket of clean water which had not long been drawn from the well, and which had only a thin coating of ice on the top.

12. It had been set in the shed ready for making some mortar, with which father was going to plaster up the cracks in the wall.

13. Brownie seemed almost more glad of the water than of the food. He took a long drink, and turned to thank Mercy with his great deep dark eyes.

14. “Now, poor old fellow, I think you will do,” said the child. “I could not bear to leave you out this bitter night, and now I must be getting home, for the snow has soaked through my boots.”

15. She stopped fondling and stroking the donkey, but he would follow her, rubbing his soft nose against her hand. “Oh, go back again, do, dear Brownie!” she said.

16. “You really must not come out with me!” Shutting the little gate, which had once been the front door of the pigsty, she ran back to the cottage.

Write: At last the little girl thought of a shed. It was at the end of the garden, and it was a clean place. She put the donkey there and fed him well.

Questions: 1. What thought struck Mercy as she was going back? 2. What sort of shed was it? 3. What did she do for Brownie first? 4. What did she give him to lie on? 5. What did she find for him to eat? 6. What did she give him besides food?

4. A HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

1. But when she came to the back door at which she had come out, Mercy found a great trouble. She lifted the latch, but the door did not open.

2. She gave a pull, a second pull, and then a tug with all her might; but it still held fast. “Why,” she thought, “I am as badly off as the donkey. I shall have to go into the pigsty with him!”

3. She had been out much longer than she thought. And while she had been taking care of Brownie her father had turned the big key in the door and gone to bed.

4. What was to be done? It would never do to wake up poor tired father, and bring him out in the cold too. So she stood there trying to puzzle out some plan for getting in.

5. The bright moonlight showed her a way to do it. The cottage was a low one, and just under the window of the room where she and Nelly slept, was a bench.

6. Standing on tiptoe upon this, Mercy found that she could reach the branches of an old vine tree, which grew over the walls of the little house.

7. She could climb up into this, and so get near the bedroom window. It was easy enough to scramble up in summer time, but not so easy now.

8. The boughs were a sheet of ice, and her fingers so cold that they could hardly take hold of them. At last, after many slips and frights, she was safely up.

9. But what would little Nelly think of seeing her sister outside the window, asking to be let in, as their pussy cat often did?

10. She was sound asleep too, and had to be wakened by many hard taps at the glass. First, Nelly felt fear at seeing a face looking in at her.

11. But she soon knew who it was. “Oh Mercy,” cried Nelly, “how long you have been! What have you been at? And why did you come back this way?”

12. “Get into bed again, there’s a dear,” said Mercy, “and I will tell you all about it.” Nelly kept awake to listen, as Mercy told her the story.

13. And she could not help clapping her hands to think of how snug poor old Brownie was now. Mercy knelt down to say her prayers before she got into bed.

14. She felt very thankful that she had been able to do one kindness to a creature like that ass which once stood in the stall beside the “new-born King.”

15. Next morning, as soon as the house was tidy, Mercy ran out to see the donkey. More snow had fallen in the night, and had filled up all her footmarks, so that she might have thought it all a dream.

16. But just as she reached the pigsty she heard a loud bray, which was Brownie’s way of saying “A Merry Christmas” to his friends.

17. “You did quite right, my child,” said her father, when Mercy told him of her work the last night. “I think that Smith does not treat him well.

18. “And I will tell you what, children, I am going to-morrow to see Mr. Smith and buy our Brownie back again. I cannot get on without him, I find.

19. “Now that your mother is well again we shall do better, and last week I put by the money for Brownie. So you need never say good-bye to him again.”

20. You may be sure that there was a happy Christmas at the cottage for Peter and his wife, and for the children, as well as for poor Brownie.

21. “How very glad I am that I went out to him that night!” said Mercy to her father. “It was not much to do, only it was Christmas Eve, and I thought ”

22. “You thought what?” said her father.

“Only,” she said, in a low voice, “I could not forget that Christ let the ox and the ass be with Him in the stable. And I thought that He would not be pleased if we left poor Brownie out in the cold.”

Write: Mercy was forced to get in at the window. She got up by the vine tree. Her little sister let her in. Peter said he should buy the donkey back.

Questions: 1. What trouble did Mercy find at her door? 2. How did she get up to the window? 3. What was Nelly doing? 4. What did Peter say when his child told him what she had done for the donkey? 5. What did he say about Mr. Smith? 6. What did he mean to do for Brownie?