A ZEALOUS LITTLE MISSIONARY

Strange as it may seem, neither child felt any ill effects from that midnight escapade, but the next morning they awoke as chipper and gay as if there were no such thing as after-Christmas feelings.  They even forgot the lonely vigil in the stable in their dismay at the discovery that Lorene had slept all night with Cherry instead of returning to their room as she had promised to do.  An after-breakfast summons to the President’s study brought their pranks vividly to mind again, however, and with considerable trepidation they saw the heavy door close behind them, shutting them in alone with the grave-eyed man, for they stood much in awe of the learned Doctor when that stern look replaced the usual bluff kindliness of his face.

The conference was exceedingly brief and to the point, judging from the sober, wilted little culprits who pattered up the stairway a few minutes later and silently sought the flag room.  Henderson and the girls were consumed with curiosity to know the result of the interview, and their amazement knew no bounds when the disgraced duet vanished within their quiet retreat and turned the key in the lock.  After waiting in vain fifteen minutes for them to reappear Lorene crossed the hall and knocked timidly at the closed door.  There was no answer.  She tried again, this time with more vim, but with no better success.  Then she called, but not a sound from within greeted her straining ear.  Cherry and Hope each took a turn, and Henderson pounded his fists sore without receiving a single word of reply from the prisoners.

“I believe they have climbed out of the window,” he cried at last in exasperation.

“No, they promised grandpa not to.  I guess maybe they’ve been sent to bed,” said Cherry, inwardly thankful that she had not been in the latest scrapes.

Neither was right.  But after a time, tiring of their efforts to get some sign from the culprits, the quartette in the hall dispersed to amuse themselves in some more entertaining manner.  No sooner had their footsteps died away on the stairs, and Peace was convinced in her own mind that they had really gone for good, than a change came over her.  She was sitting erect in a stiff-backed chair in one corner of the room, while her companion in misery sat huddled in the opposite corner, staring at the fresco of flags above her head.  Both looked dreadfully woe-begone, and as if the tears were very near the surface, for punishment sat heavily upon these two light-hearted spirits, particularly as such severe measures did not seem necessary or just to them in view of the smallness of their sin.  However, when the racket outside their door finally fell away into silence, Peace suddenly gave a little jump of inspiration, twisted her feet about the legs of her chair, and began a slow, laborious hitching process across the red rug toward the tiny dresser.  Reaching this goal, she jerked open a drawer, rummaged out paper and pencil and began a furious scratching.

Allee watched with fascinated eyes, but true to her promise to the President in the den below, she never said a word, though she was nearly bursting with curiosity and it was so hard to keep still.  After a few moments of rapid scribbling on a page of vivid pink stationery, the brown-eyed plotter again commenced her queer march across the room until she had reached the door, unlocked it, and after a hard struggle managed to pin the slip to the outside panel.  Then with a sigh of mingled relief at having accomplished her object and resignation at her unjust fate, she closed the door once more, and wriggled back to her place opposite Allee, never so much as looking at the eager face questioning hers so mutely.

Again silence reigned in the pretty room, and both girls fell to wondering what the other members of the household were doing.  Suppose Cherry had taken Lorene down to the pond to skate.  That was what Peace herself had been planning on ever since she had looked into the small dark face of the child who was only six weeks and two days younger than she was.  Suppose Hope had gone with Henderson to coast on the hill.  He had promised Allee the first ride just the night before.  Suppose Jud should choose this morning to take the girls sleighing as he had said he would do when the first heavy snow fell.

It had stormed all night and the deep mantle of white lay tempting and inviting in the bright winter sunshine.  Oh, dear, what a queer world it seemed!  Some people were in trouble all the time and some were never bothered with scrapes and punishments.  There was Hope.  Why was it Hope never did such outlandish things to cause anxiety and dismay to those around her?  Hope never even thought of the freakish pranks that were constantly getting Peace into trouble.

What was it grandma was always quoting?  “Thoughtfulness seeks never to add to another’s burdens, never to make extra work or care, but always to lighten loads.”  She said it was because Hope was always thinking of beautiful things that made folks love to have her near; that it was the mischievous thoughts which cause the misery of the world.  She said-what did she say?  The brown eyes winked slower and slower, the brown head bent lower and lower.  Peace was asleep.

An hour passed,-two.  The luncheon bell tinkled, the family gathered about the table for the mid-day meal, but the chairs on either side of the President’s place were vacant.  Glances of inquiry flashed from face to face.  Were the children to be kept in their room all day?

“Where are Peace and Allee?” asked the Doctor, very much surprised at their absence.

“I haven’t seen them since you sent them upstairs this morning,” answered Mrs. Campbell, who had been occupied all the forenoon writing a paper for the Home Missionary Society which was to meet at the parsonage that afternoon.

A guilty flush overspread the President’s fine face, and forgetting to excuse himself from the table, he abruptly pushed back his chair and strode from the room, muttering remorsefully, “I deserve to be licked!  That was three hours ago and I promised to call them in an hour.”  He returned shortly alone, looking very foolish, and holding in his hand a square of brilliant pink.

“What is it?” asked his wife, surprised at the look on his face.  “Where are the little folks?”

“Asleep.  They looked so worn out that I put them on the bed and left them to have their nap out.  This is what I found on the door.”

He dropped the slip of paper into her hands as he resumed his seat, and she read in tipsy, scrawling letters Peace’s poster:  “It won’t do enny good to raket or holler to us.  We can’t talk for an hour.  If you want to ask queshuns go to grandpa he is boss of this roost.”

She smiled a little tremulously as she passed the pathetic scribble to Henderson, sitting at her right, but he, being a boy, saw only the funny side of the situation, and let out a lusty howl of joy as he read aloud the words with much gusto to his delighted audience.

When the laughter had subsided somewhat, the President asked ruefully, “How can I make my peace with them?  I sent them to their room for an hour and promptly forgot all about the affair.”

“I’ll take them to the Missionary Meeting with me this afternoon,” suggested Mrs. Campbell, “and you can come for us with the sleigh.  Peace has begged to go over ever since she has been here.  It seems that Mrs. Strong is an enthusiastic missionary worker, and Peace’s greatest ambition is to be like her Saint Elspeth.”

“So she can find another St. John and marry him,” giggled Faith.

“Yes.  I guess it is hard to decide which one of her saints she thinks the most of,” Mrs. Campbell agreed; “but I am so glad she has chosen such a beautiful couple to pattern her own ideals after.  Their friendship will do much for our little-” she intended to say “mischief-maker,” but this white-haired woman with her mother instincts seemed to understand that Peace’s mischief was never done for mischief’s sake, so she changed the word to “sunshine-maker.”

Thus it happened that when the brown eyes and the blue unclosed after their long nap, they looked up into the dear face of their grandmother-by-adoption, and saw by her tender smile that their punishment was ended.  They were surprised to find how long they had slept, but the delight at being allowed to attend a grown-up missionary meeting, as Allee called it, overshadowed whatever resentment they might have felt at having been forgotten for so long a time, and they danced away through the snow beside Mrs. Campbell as happy and carefree as the little birds which they had fed yesterday.

The meeting was not as exciting as Peace had been led to expect from Mrs. Strong’s enthusiastic recitals regarding missionary work, but some of the words spoken by the different ladies sank very deeply into the children’s fertile brains, and both were so silent on the homeward journey behind the flying horses that finally Mrs. Campbell ventured to ask, “Are you tired, girlies?  Was the meeting a disappointment to you?”

“Oh, no,” Peace hastened to assure her. “I liked it lots, and Allee likes the same things I do, don’t you, Allee?  The women were pretty slow about doing things-they talked so long each time before they could make up their minds about anything.  But it’s int’resting to know that at last they decided to send some barrels to the poor ministers in the little places who don’t get enough to live on.  ’Twould have been better if they had done it before Christmas, though, so’s the children wouldn’t have thought Santa Claus had forgotten them.  Do-do you think like Mrs. McGowan-that if we have two coats and someone else hasn’t any, we ought to give away one of ours?  That’s what she said, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that is what she said,” Mrs. Campbell agreed; “and in a large measure I believe her doctrine, too.  If we have more than we need and there are others less fortunate, I think we ought to share our blessings.  But it takes a lot of good sense and tact to do this judicially.”

“I think so, too,” answered Peace with such a peculiar thrill in her voice that the President, at whose side she was sitting, turned and looked quizzically at the rapt face.  “I don’t b’lieve in talking a lot about giving and then when it comes to really doing it, to give just the left-over things that ain’t any good to us any longer, and wouldn’t be to anyone else, either.”

“Why, what do you mean, child?” the woman asked, taken by surprise at such quaint observations from the fly-away little maid, whose serious thoughts were regarded as jokes even by her own family.

“Well, there was Mrs. Waddler in Parker.  She always talked so big that folks who didn’t know her thought she must have millions of money; but when she came to giving, it was usu’ly skim milk or some of her husband’s worn-out pants.”

Here the President exploded, but at the same instant the horses turned in at the driveway; and in scrambling down from the sleigh Peace forgot to press her argument any further.  Nor did the older folks remember it again for some days.  Then Mrs. Campbell entered the doctor’s study one afternoon with a deep frown on her forehead, and a little note in her hand.

At the sound of her voice, the busy man paused in his writing and glanced up hastily, asking, “What seems to be the difficulty?”

“This letter.  I don’t understand it.  Mrs. Scofield writes a note of regrets because I found it impossible to be with them at the last missionary meeting, and closes by thanking me for my generous donation.  Now, it happens that just before Christmas, I carefully went through all the closets of the house, sorted out and hunted up all the good, half-worn clothing that we could spare, and sent it to the Danbury Hospital for distribution among their poor families; so I simply had nothing of value to add to the barrels intended for the frontier ministers-”

“Why didn’t you buy something?”

“I did; or, rather, I thought the poor preacher might find the money more acceptable than anything I could purchase, so I selected the family of Brother Bennet of Idaho, and sent him a check.  I mailed it to him direct, not wanting to run the risk of the barrel being delayed or destroyed.  I also neglected to inform the ladies of what I had done; so I am sure they know nothing about it, for it is yet too early to hear from Mr. Bennet himself.”

“Maybe it is a case of a little bird’s having told the story,” laughed the doctor, taking up his pen to resume his writing, and his wife, still musing over the strange occurrence, went away to receive a caller who had just been announced.

An hour later she returned to the study looking more perplexed than when she had left him before, and the President banteringly asked, “Haven’t you found out yet about that generous donation?”

“Yes, Donald.  Mrs. Haynes has just told me the whole story.  It was not my donation at all.”

“Ah, the worthy ladies just got mixed in their thanks-”

“Not at all!  It was Peace’s work, and naturally they thought I had authorized it.  That little rascal picked up about half her wardrobe, her Christmas doll, several games and story books, and goodness knows what all, and took them over to Mrs. Scofield’s house to be packed in the missionary barrels.  Not only that, she persuaded Allee to do the same with her treasures.”

“The little sinner!” ejaculated the startled President.  “Without saying a word to anyone about her intentions?”

“She never consulted me.”

“Nor me.  Well, we must just send her back after them, and make her understand she must ask us when she wants to dispose of her belongings.”

“That is just the trouble.  The barrels have already gone.”

“You don’t say so!  The monkey!  Send Peace to me when she comes in, Dora.  We must curb these philanthropic tendencies in their infancy and direct them in the right channels.  There is the making of a wonderful woman in that small body.”

“With the right training.”

“Yes.  God grant that we may be able to give her the right training.”

Peace came radiantly in response to the message, dancing lightly down the hall as a hummingbird might flutter along, and the mere sight of her merry face as it popped through the study doorway was like a sudden shaft of sunlight in the great room.  The President had determined to meet her gravely, even sternly, and show her that her uncalled-for generosity had displeased them, but in spite of himself, his eyes softened as they rested upon the sweet, round face upturned for a kiss, and he gently drew her into his lap before telling her why he had sent for her.

“Why, yes, grandpa,” she readily confessed.  “I did give away some of my clothes and other things, and so did Allee, ’cause the children of the ministers on the frontier need them so much more than we do.  Why, we’re rich now and can have anything we want!  You said so yourself, you know.  We couldn’t give the things we didn’t want ourselves, grandpa, ’cause that wouldn’t be a sacrilege; and the pretty lady who talked at the missionary meeting that day said it was the sacrilèges we made in this world that put stars in our crowns in the next world.”

“Sacrifice, dear, not sacrilege.”

“Is it?  Well, I knew it was some kind of a sack.  I want lots of stars in my crown when I get to heaven.  Just think how terrible you’d feel s’posing when St. Peter let you inside the Gates, he handed you just a plain, blank crown.  Mercy!  I know I’d bawl my eyes out even if it does say there aren’t any tears in heaven.  So I picked out the things I liked the very best of all I got on Christmas-that is, most of them were.  I don’t care much for dolls, so that wasn’t any sacri-fice for me; but Allee likes them awfully much yet, and it was a big sacri-fice for her to let hers go.  But I sent my dear, beautiful plaid dress that I thought was the prettiest of the bunch, though I let Allee keep the one she liked best, seeing she cried so hard about Queen Helen.  She didn’t seem to enjoy thinking about the big star she’ll get in its place, so I told her I thought likely you or grandma would give her even a prettier doll for her birthday, which isn’t very far off now.  I sent the book which tells all about the way little children in other lands spend Christmas day, but it was pretty hard work to give that one up.  I pulled it out of the heap three times, and fin’ly had to run like wild up to Mrs. Scofield’s house with it, so’s I wouldn’t take it out and put it on the shelf to stay.”

“But why did you take so many things?” asked the Doctor lamely.

“There are five children in the family we sent our stuff to, and three of them are girls.  There are six girls in our family, and when we lived all alone in the little brown house with just ragged, faded dresses to wear and only plain things to eat, holidays and all, we’d have been tickled to death if someone had given us such pretty things all for our very own.  Oh, wouldn’t it have made you happy if you had been a little girl?”

The great, brown eyes shone with such a glorified light and the small, round face looked so blissfully happy that the Doctor’s lecture was wholly forgotten, and for a long time he held the little form close in his arms while his mind went backward over the long years to the time when he was a homeless orphan and Hi Allen-Hi Greenfield-had shared his treasures with him.  They made a beautiful picture sitting there in the gathering dusk, the white head bending low over the riotous brown curls, the strong hands intertwined with the supple, childish fingers; and so completely had she captured the great heart of the man that when at length he set her on the floor and sent her away with a kiss, he spoke no chiding word.  And Peace skipped off well content with the results of her first missionary efforts.

A few days later she danced into the house one afternoon from school, wet from head to foot with a damp, clinging snow which was falling, and at sight of her, Mrs. Campbell threw up her hands and exclaimed, “Peace, my child, what have you been doing?”

“Ted and Evelyn Smiley and Allee and me and some others had a snow-ball battle.”

“That is expressly forbidden by the school board-” began the gentle little grandmother reprovingly.

“Oh, we didn’t battle with the school board, grandma!  We waited until we reached Evelyn’s house and had it in their back yard.  The snow is just right for dandy balls.”

“I should think as much.  Come here!”

Peace obeyed, glancing hastily at her feet as she guiltily remembered a certain pair of new shoes which she was wearing and saw the sharp, black eyes fixed searchingly upon them.

“Peace Greenfield, what have you on your feet?”

“Shoes.”

“Your new strapped shoes-slippers-for summer wear?”

Peace nodded.

“After I told you not to wear them until warmer weather!”

“You didn’t say that, grandma,” Peace expostulated.  “You said as long as I had any others, you guessed I had better put these away for party wear until it got warmer.”

As a rule, Peace’s excuses rather amused the mistress of the house, but this time she looked sternly at the little culprit, and briefly commanded, “Go to your room and put on your other shoes immediately.”

“I haven’t got any others.”

“No others?  What do you mean?”

“I-I-gave mine all away.”

“To whom did you give them?” asked the President, who had entered the room unnoticed.

“To a little girl I met on the hill yesterday.  Her toes were sticking through hers and she looked dreadfully cold, and kept stamping her feet to keep them from freezing.”

The President swallowed a lump in his throat.

“She did not need two pair to keep her feet warm, did she?”

“She was twins.”

“Wh-at?”

Peace jumped.  “Well, she said she had a sister just her same age at home, who hadn’t any shoes at all.”

He took her by the hand, led her to her room, and after seeing that the wet shoes and stockings were replaced with dry ones, he lectured her kindly about giving away her belongings in such a promiscuous manner without first consulting her elders.  And having won her promise for future good behavior, he went down town to purchase new shoes for the shoeless culprit, satisfied that Peace would remember his words of caution, and that they should not again be disturbed by the too generous acts of this zealous little home missionary.

And Peace did remember for a long time, but one day when the two younger children had been left alone with the servants, temptation again invaded this little Garden of Eden, and the brown-haired Eve yielded.

It was late in the afternoon and Peace and Allee were standing by the window watching the sinking sun, when a ragged, stooped, old man trailed down the quiet street with a battered, wheezy, old hand-organ strapped to his back and a wizened, wistful-eyed, peaked-faced child at his heels.  Seeing the two bright faces in the window and concluding that money was plentiful in that home, the vagabond slipped the organ from its supports, and began grinding out a discordant tune from the protesting instrument, sending the ragged, weary, little girl to the door with her tin cup for contributions.

Peace saw her approaching, and opened the door before she had a chance to ring the bell, surprising the tiny ragamuffin so completely that she could only stand and mutely hold out her appealing dipper, having forgotten entirely the words she had been taught to speak on such occasions.

“You’re cold,” said Peace, a great pity surging through her breast as she saw the swollen, purple hands trying to hide under ragged sleeves of a pitifully thin coat.

“Ver’ col’,” repeated the beggar, finding her tongue.

“And hungry?”

“Not’ing to eat today.”

Peace made a sudden dive at the dirty, unkempt creature, jerked her into the warm hall, and calling over her shoulder to the organ-grinder on the walk, “Go on playing, old man, she’ll be back pretty soon!” she slammed the door shut, pushed the child into a chair by the glowing grate, and turned to Allee with the command, “Go ask Gussie for something to eat.  Tell her a lunch in a bag will do.  She’s always good to beggars.”

“No beggar,” remonstrated the little foreigner.  “Earn money.  Some days much.  Little this day.  It so col’.”

“Is that all the coat you have?” Peace demanded, eyeing the scant attire with horrified eyes.

“All,” answered the child simply, and she sighed heavily.

“I’ve got two.  You can have one of mine,” cried Peace, forgetting wisdom, discretion, everything, in her great pity for this hapless bit of humanity.

“You mean it?  No, you fool,” was the disconcerting reply.

“I’m not a fool!”

“No, no, not a fool.  You jus’ fool,-joke.  You no mean it.”

“I do, too!  Wait a minute till I get it, and see if it fits.  You’re thinner’n me, but you’re about as tall.”

She rushed eagerly up the stairway, and soon returned with the pretty, brown coat which she had found on her bed Christmas morning.  Into this she bundled the surprised beggar child, pleased to think it fitted so well, and explained rapidly, “I got two new coats for Christmas.  Grandma said the red one was for best, so I kept that one, but you can have this.  Keep it on outside your old rag.  It will be just that much warmer, and tonight is awfully cold.  Here’s a pair of mittens, too.  Wear ’em; they’re nice and warm.”

Thrusting Allée’s bag of lunch into the blue-mittened hands, Peace opened the door and let the newly-cloaked figure run down the walk to the impatient man stamping back and forth in the street.  They watched him minutely examining the child’s new treasures, but they could not see the avaricious gleam in his ugly eyes, nor did they dream that the precious brown coat would be stripped off the shivering little form just as soon as they were out of sight around the corner, and bartered for whiskey at the nearest saloon.

So happy was Peace in thinking of this other child’s happiness that she never once thought of her promise made to her grandfather until she saw Jud drive up the avenue and help the rest of the family out of the big sleigh.  At sight of the erect figure striding up the walk with the gentle little grandmother on one arm and sister Gail on the other, she suddenly remembered that he had told her when she gave away her shoes that she must ask permission before disposing of her belongings, or he should be compelled to use drastic measures.  “Brass-stick” measures, she called it, and visions of a certain brass rule on the desk in the library rose before her in a most disquieting fashion as she recalled that impressive interview.

“Don’t tell him what you have done,” whispered a little evil voice in her ear.

“Tell him at once,” commanded her conscience; and acting upon the impulse of the moment, she flew into the old gentleman’s arms almost before he had crossed the threshold and panted out, “I ’xpect you’ll be compendled to use your brass-stick measures on me this time sure.  I guv away my coat!”

“You did what?” he cried, pushing her from him that he might look into her face.

“Gave, I mean.  I gave away my brown coat.”

“Peace!”

The sorrowful tone of his voice cut her to the heart, but she flew to her own defense with oddly distorted words, “I couldn’t help it, grandpa!  She was so ragged and cold.  S’posing you had to go around begging hand-organs for a squeaky old penny, without anything to eat on your back or vittles to wear.  Wouldn’t you like to have someone with two coats give you one?”

“Very likely I should, my child.  I am not blaming you for the unselfish feeling which prompted you to give away your coat to one more unfortunate than yourself, but you are not yet old enough to know how to give wisely.  You will do more harm than good by such giving.  No doubt your little brown coat is in the pawn-shop by this time.”

“But grandpa, she was in rags!”

“Yes, and that is the way that brute of a man will keep her.  Do you suppose he would get any money for his playing if he sent around a well-dressed child to collect the pennies?  No, indeed!  That is why he makes her wear rags.  He will sell or pawn your coat for liquor, and neither you nor the beggar child will have it to wear.”

“But I have my red one.”

“You can’t wear that to school.”

“Why not?”

“It is not suitable.”

“Then you’ll get me another.”

“No, Peace.”

“You won’t?” Her grieved surprise almost unmanned him.

“No.”

“But you’ve got plenty of money!”

“I will not have it long if you are going to give it all away.”

“You bought me some more shoes.”

“Yes.”

“That took money.”

“Yes.”

“I-I thought you’d give us anything we wanted.”

“I have tried to, dear.”

“But I shall want another coat.”

He shook his head.  “You deliberately gave away the one you had without asking permission.  I can’t supply you with new clothes continually if that is what you intend to do with them.”

“Then how will I go to school any more?”

“You must wear the coat you had when you came here to live.”

“So you hung onto that old gray Parker coat, did you?” she said bitterly.

“Yes, and now you will have to wear it until spring comes.”

She was silent a moment, then shrugged her shoulders and airily retorted, “I s’pose you know!  But, anyway, it was worth giving the new coat away just to see how glad the Dago was to get it.”

It was the President’s turn to look surprised, and for an instant he was at a loss to know what to say; then he took her hand and led her away to the study, with the grave command, “Come, Peace, I think we will have to see this out by ourselves.”

She caught her breath sharply, but never having questioned his authority since the days of the little brown house were over, she obediently followed him into the dim library and heard the door click behind them.  As the gas flared up when he touched a match to the jet, she looked apprehensively about the room, and shuddered as she saw the brass ruler lying on top of a pile of papers on the desk.  He even picked it up and toyed with it for a moment, and she thought her hour of reckoning had surely come.  And it had, but not in the way she expected.

Dropping the ruler at length, he abruptly ordered, “Sit down in my lap, Peace.”

Usually he lifted her to that throne of honor himself, but this time he made no effort to help her, and when she was seated with her face lifted expectantly toward his, he disengaged the warm arms from about his neck and turned her around on his knee until she was looking at the desk straight in front of them.  Then he picked up a book and began reading silently.

Peace was plainly puzzled, for each time she turned her head to look at him, he gently but firmly wheeled her about and went on reading.  At last she could be patient no longer, and with an angry little hop, she demanded, “What’s the fuss about, grandpa?  What are you going to do?”

Without looking up from his book he laid one finger on his lips and remained silent.

“Can’t I talk?”

It was a terrible punishment for Peace to keep still, and knowing this, just the faintest glimmer of a smile twitched at his lips, but he merely nodded gravely.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Gravely he shook his head.

Peace stared at the chandelier, then surreptitiously stole a peep at the face behind her.  A big hand turned the curly head gently from him.

She studied the green walls with their delicate frescoing, then cautiously leaned back against the President’s broadcloth vest.  Firmly he righted her.  Dismay took possession of her.  This was the worst punishment that ever had befallen her,-that ever could.

She gulped down the big lump which was growing in her throat, and counted the books on the highest shelf around the wall.  Fifty-sixty-seventy-her heart burst, and with a wail of anguish she kicked the book out of the President’s hand and clutched him about the neck with a grip that nearly choked him, as she sobbed, “Oh, grandpa, I’ll never, never, never forget again!  I’ll be the most un-missionary person you ever knew,-yes, I’ll be a reg’lar heathen if you’ll just speak to me!  I didn’t think I was being bad in trying to help others-”

“My precious darling!  I don’t want you to be a heathen,” he cried, straining her to his heart.  “I want you to be the best and most enthusiastic little missionary it is possible for you to be, but in order to be a good missionary, one must first learn obedience, and cultivate good judgment.  I wouldn’t for all the world have my little girl grow up a stingy, miserly woman.  I am proud of the sweet, generous, unselfish spirit which prompts you to try to make the burdens of others lighter, but you are too little a girl yet to know how and where to give money and clothes and such things so they will do good and not harm.”

“I see now what you mean, grandpa.  I thought when I gave my coat to the little hand-organ beggar that she would keep it and use it.  I never s’posed her father wouldn’t let her have it, and now when he takes it away from her she will be sorrier’n she would have been if she had never had it.”

“Yes, dear; and the money the old fellow gets from selling it will undoubtedly be spent for drink, or something equally as bad for him.  Just out of curiosity, I traced the shoes you gave to the child on the hill not long ago, and I found that she had not told you the truth at all.  She had no twin sister, nor did she even need the shoes herself.”

“Is-is-there no one that really is hungry and cold and needs things?” gulped the unhappy child after a long pause of serious thought.

“Oh, yes, my dear!  Thousands and thousands of them,” he sighed sorrowfully; “and I am deeply thankful that my little girlie wants to make the old world happier.  But after all, dear, the greatest need of this world of ours is love.  It is not the money we give away which counts; it is the love we have for other people.  I remember well a little couplet your great-grandmother was fond of quoting-and she practiced it every day of her life, too,-

    ’Give, if thou canst, an alms; if not, afford
    Instead of that, a sweet and gentle word.’

“She had little of this world’s goods to give away, but she was one of the greatest sunshine missionaries I ever knew.  My, how every one loved her.  And her son, Hi, was just like her-one of the biggest-hearted, most lovable people God ever created.  He was certainly a power for good during his life, but his only riches were a great love for his fellowmen and his warm, sunny smile.”

Again a deep silence fell over the room, for Peace, cuddled in the strong man’s arms, with the tears still glistening on the long, curved lashes, was thinking as she had never thought before.  Suddenly the dinner bell pealed out its summons, and as the President stirred in his chair, the child lifted her head from his shoulder, and looking squarely into the strong, kindly face, she said simply, “I’m going to be like them and you, so’s folks will love me, too.  And I’m not going to give away any more coats or shoes without you say I can, until I am big enough to grow some sense.  I’m just going to smile and talk.”

He did not laugh at her quaint phrasing of her intentions, but tightening his clasp upon the small body nestling within the circle of his arms, he quoted,

    “’Work a little, sing a little,
      Whistle and be gay;
    Read a little, play a little,
      Busy every day. 
    Talk a little, laugh a little,
      Don’t forget to pray;
    Be a bit of merry sunshine
      All the blessed way.’”