December, 1941
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
461
Junior King s Business By MARTHA S. HOOKER Member of Faculty, Bible Institute o f Los Angeles ••
his little daughter, was just in time to see the gay tree with its twinkling lights reel crazily and then crash upon him. Before the men who rushed for ward could reach the platform, a tongue of red flame leaped where a lighted can dle had fallen on Janet’s flowing robes. How Bob was able to do it he never understood, except that he had been praying to be quick to see and make use of opportunities. He remembered in a flash that he had seen a bucket of water near the door of the classroom back of the platform—put there by a careful janitor because they were using candles. With a leap he was over the wreckage, and a swift deluge of water ended the threat of a real tragedy. Dr. Kirkland was rescued uninjured. Janet, suffering chiefly from bruises, scratches, and injured vanity, was shivering with the sudden drenching and was almost hysterical with excitement. As the crowd left the schoolhouse, rumors began to fly that the tree and supports of the staircase had b e e n sawed almost through. Investigating a string tied to the tree and running out a cracked window pane, the men came upon a huddled form in the dark ness. A flashlight revealed a small lad der on the ground and beside it a boy half unconscious—stunned by his fall. It was Jimmie! “He kept his promise,” wailed Janet. “I didn’t think he really meant it,” and burying her head on her mother’s shoul der, she sobbed wildly, “I hate him, I hate him.” “Poor kid,” said one of the men com passionately. “No mother, dad away all day—an empty shack to live in— what shall we do with him?” “We’re taking him home with us,” said Dr. Kirkland decidedly, and it seemed only a few minutes before the doctor with gentle Skill was caring for the boy in the warm comfort of the farmhouse guest room. Janet, petted and soothed, was soon asleep, and in the morning Dr. Kirkland gayly pronounced both patients out of. danger. But the house seemed robbed of its usual Christmas morning cheer. Jimmie’s heart was closed to love, and he lay in his com fortable bed with a frown on his face and answered only in a short, ungracious way when spoken to, and said he wanted to be “let alone.” Janet sat in the big chair by th£ fireplace with a brooding, sulky look on her usually happy face. It was the appointed time to open Christmas gifts, and Bob rushed in with his arms full of packages to open with his cousins. As the family gathered beside the tree and its heaped-up piles of bright packages, Bob cast inquir ing looks at the tightly closed
A TWO-IN-ONE CHRISTMAS* B y F rances N oble P hair p a r t n .
Janice and Janet, t h e Kirkland twins, looked forward eagerly to Christ mas day as a “ two-in-one“ occasion, for it was to he also their tenth birth day. In preparation for Christmas, their mother suggested that they and their twelve-year-old cousin Bob pray about honoring the Lord Jesus at Christmas time by bringing to Him as a gift one of their schoolmates who did not yet know Him. They thought immediately of Jimmie, a bitter, scornful boy who called himself a communist and who had declared that he did not believe in S ATURDAY EVENING c a m e at last. Since Janet was to be an angel and Bob a shepherd in the were in the classroom behind the plat form when Janice and her mother and f a t h e r found seats in the audience. Looking carefully around, Janice could not see Jimmie anywhere, and she was disappointed. She had earnestly hoped and prayed that some part of the entertainment, the songs or Scripture, would touch his heart. Then she forgot everything, watching the scenes before her. The room was unlighted except for the subdued flicker of candle lights on the tree. Bob was stand ing among the central group of shepherds, leaning on his staff and making a speech. As, he stopped s p e a k i n g , a beam of bright light from a strong flash light poured through the “clouds” of fleecy white material on Janet’s hidden stairway. From the audi ence, no one would guess how very carefully she had to move on the shaky stairs. Soon her sweet, high voice began its message of peace and good will as she came gracefully down the steps.
God and was going to "wreck“ the Christmas program. Janice and Bob agreed eagerly, but Janet, who was to sing a special solo in the Christmas exercises, poutingly declared that she thought Jesus would be as much pleased with a pretty program. Two days be fore Christmas the twins and Bob dis played at school the wonderfully elab orate model ships that had just come from their uncle in Honolulu. JVheti Janice showed her fishing schooner with its sails and tiny fishermen, Jimmie’s greedy look frightened her. she came plunging through the cloud draperies into the midst of the shep herds, her fall broken somewhat by Bob’s quick attempt to catch her. There followed the sound of splintering wood and ripping cloth as the frail staircase pitched forward after Janet. Dr. Kirk land, leaping to the platform to reach
Christmas Eve program at school, they
Janice and her mother never forgot the terrifying shock that the sudden change of the next moment brought. Janet’s voice rose in a frightened scream as
No one would guess how carefully Janet had to move.
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