Part 20 (2/2)

Splash away, dash away, danger is past, The vessel is anch.o.r.ed, in harbour at last.

M. I. H.

A LABOR OF LOVE.

”Oh, Claude, do look at that poor woman! Doesn't she look ill! I don't believe she can drag that great pail of salt water up the beach. There, she's let it drop! all the water is spilt, and she is leaning against the boat. I must go and see if I can help her.”

So spoke kind-hearted little Elsie, but Claude pulled her back.

”Don't, Elsie! The woman will be all right directly, and we don't know anything about her.”

”But she's in trouble,” urged Elsie. ”See how she trembles, and you know, Claude, what we heard on Sunday at the catechising.”

Claude could not but remember, for it was only yesterday that the clergyman had told his little hearers to try and sympathize with any one in trouble. ”Let them realize by your sympathy that you remember that we are all one great family--all one in Christ.”

So he let go of Elsie's hand, and she went up to the half-fainting woman and asked her if she wanted anything.

”No, thank you,” said the woman, looking gratefully at her little bare-legged questioner (Elsie was in her sh.o.r.e dress--or rather undress--and with tucked-up petticoats and huge sun-bonnet was supposed to be secure from any evil effects of either water or sun). ”I shall be better presently,” she continued; ”it's only my side; it hurts me so when I fetch the salt water. It's for the little invalid boy at the Red House there. I'm his nurse, and the doctor has ordered a salt-water bath for him every day, and it hurts me to drag the water up this steep beach; only I don't want any one there to know it, as they might send me away as not strong enough, and I must earn money, for I've a sick mother at home.”

”Oh, I know we can help you in that,” cried Elsie. ”You sit still, and let me carry your empty pail to the top of the beach; it's only a step from there to the Red House, and then we'll bring our little pails full of water and soon fill yours.”

The nurse would have remonstrated, but Elsie had run off with the pail, and she really felt too ill to follow her.

The tide was low that morning, and the salt water lay beyond a good stretch of sand, so that Elsie had no light work before her; and after the sands, there was the steep beach to climb, and somehow when she was at the top her bucket seemed to have but little water in it. However, she toiled bravely to and fro, and Claude, who would not help at first, was touched by her industry. Of course, he would not own to such feelings, and indeed was too proud, saying to Elsie that she was spilling half her water! ”Here, _I'll_ show you how to carry a bucket!”

And after that he worked with her, and with Claude's big bucket the pail was soon filled. By this time the nurse was better, and able to carry the pail across the road into the Red House.

”I'll never forget your kindness as long as I live,” she gratefully declared. ”I might have been your own sister by the way you've behaved to me.”

”How funny of her to say that,” whispered Elsie to her brother; ”it seems as though she must have been at the catechising too. Perhaps she knows we ought to try to be all one in Christ.”

And Claude, boy-like, only nodded his a.s.sent.

CHESTNUTS.

Ben was visiting his cousin Hugh in the country, and they had been having a glorious time getting chestnuts. They started early in the morning, taking their dinners with them that they might have all day in the woods. There had been a sharp frost the night before, and the boys had a merry time as the wind rattled the brown chestnuts down on their heads. Bags and pockets were soon full to overflowing, and after eating their lunch by the brook they started for home.

”Now for a feast of roast chestnuts,” said Ben, as they sat down by the fireplace, after the good warm supper which Hugh's mother had ready for them. ”I will roast them and you can pull off the sh.e.l.ls when they are done.”

What fun it was to see the nuts jump around in the shovel Ben was using for a roaster, till their brown sh.e.l.ls burst open with the heat!

”We will roast a whole bagful,” said Hugh, ”then there will be some for sister Lucy.”

To be sure, Hugh burnt his fingers, and Ben dropped some chestnuts into the fire, but they only laughed the merrier. Lucy joined them after she had finished helping her mother with the work, and together they ate the chestnuts and played games till bedtime came, when they all agreed it had been one of the happiest days of their lives.

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