lady in the neighborhood, and she said to my sister and me, as she left: “You girls be good now, and do your chores. Then you may play all the rest of the day until I get back.” We hurried through our duties. Hers was to pick a pail of strawberries for the evening meal and mine was to water and feed all the little chicks. Then we gathered our playmates — Rover, our faithful collie, our plump cat Bell, and our funny little bantam hen, Susie, and proceeded to have fun. First we dressed Rover in doll clothes and placed him in a doll carriage. Then we put a handkerchief across Susie’s wings and a doll bonnet on her head and set her beside Rover. Bell, who was a mighty hunter at night, was too lazy to play; she just lay beside the house and watched us out of one eye. We laughed so hard at the way Susie looked, we did not hear the crash of the terror that was almost upon us. I must go back a bit. Our mother prayed daily that God would take care of “her girls” and that meant my younger sister and me. I wonder *— do you girls and boys ask God to look after you each day, to keep you from danger, from harm, and from sin? That is one of the best things about the Christian life: one may talk to God in the name of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ any time. The Bible contains many promises about prayer like the one in First John 5:14-15: “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He hear- eth us; And if we know He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” I am sure Mother “asked” that day. We must pause again for a word about Nell and Betsy. Our father was very proud of them for they were a perfectly matched team of “dapple grays,” with shiny coats, and grace ful feet. They pranced rather than walked and held their heads very high as if proud of their luxuriant manes. Very seldom did our father let Mother drive them for they were so high-spirited he was afraid they would run away. But he was quite able to control them . . . generally. On this bright day he had to use them in the field which he disliked doing. He had big draft horses for that kind of work but for some reason that day he had hitched Nell and Betsy to his cultivator, which is a kind of plow used to loose the soil between the rows of com. All went well. The horses were stepping along as if they enjoyed that kind of work for a change. Then he made a serious mistake: he got off the machine to
I wonder if you boys and girls who live in the city think that children who live on farms have a dull life? True, they 'haven’t the noise of the thousands of cars, the wails of the fire sirens, the many accidents and other excitement that go on in a large city. But they do not lack for thrilling experiences. There are dan gers too on a farm that city children cannot imagine. When I was a little girl, tractors were not common on farms as they are today but no farmer was without his horses. Usually he had horses for
heavy field work and others for driv ing the buggies to town. When auto mobiles began to fill the country roads, the horses were often fright ened by their noise and fumes and sometimes “ran away.” If they weren’t stopped, the vehicles over turned and people were injured or killed. Occasionally horses “r a n away” for other reasons. I ’ll tell you about the time our horses Nell and Betsy ran away. On a bright summer day, our moth er was called away to care for a sick
GUESS WHO? 14. A fleece of wool. What Bible characters are suggest- 15. Sychar’s well. ed by the following?
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1. A mess of pottage. 2. Stones for a pillow. 3. Five smooth stones. 4. A cock that crew. 5. A burning bush. 6. An alabaster box. 7. The ass that talked. 8. An ax head that swam.
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uos leßjpojd aqj_ q l snujapoD!|\j *5 BHSM3 8 iuee|eg •£ Aueipsg jo Ajeyy -9
9. A hundred pounds of spices. 10. The best robe.
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11. A captive maid. 12. A seller of purple.
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13. A great sheet knit at four cor ners.
42
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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