JUNIOR KINO’S BUSINESS
Martha S. Hooker
M ARY LOU was excited. She was feeling Important, too, this particular morning, as the church, for just as she had kissed Mother good-by, Mother had asked, “Mary Lou, would you like to in vite Betty to come home to lunch with you today? It will be warm enough to eat on the screened porch.” Mary Lou and Betty were chums, and in the same class in Daily Va cation Bible School. “Would I! Mommie, you think of the nicest things for me to do!” Then Mary Lou’s bright face had clouded. “What if Betty’s mother won’t let her come?” Her mother had smiled as she gave Mary Lou’s shoulder a little pat. “It’s all arranged, dear. I phoned Betty’s mother, and she was pleased. I told her that I was going to let you invite Betty yourself." And now Mary Lou was in a hurry to see Betty and invite her. The two girls could hardly wait to get home after school, and they were thrilled to see that Mother had set the table with a pretty cloth, and her lovely new Mexican dishes. On the table they found a note from Mother saying that she had gone to the store. "But,” read Mary Lou aloud, “I’ve left everything ready for you in the refrigerator: fruit, salad, sandwiches, chocolate pudding and plenty of milk. Have a good time, darlings. I’ll be back in a short while.” “Isn’t this fun?” laughed Betty, following Mary Lou into the kitchen. “ It’s almost like keeping house by ourselves.” Mary Lou thought so, too, as she set the salad plates out on the table. “Here, let me help carry some thing," Betty offered, picking up the plate of dainty sandwiches, and starting toward the porch. “I’m the one who should be wait ing on you, Betty. You’re my com pany,” protested Mary Lou. “Oh, no! It’s lots more fun to help each other, no matter whose house we’re in.”
Just then the latch came undone. Both girls rushed across the lawn. Betty spied an apple on the ground. She threw it right at Boots. There was a flash of black as the big cat disappeared under the hedge. The baby robin was safe. Mary Lou picked up the tiny bird, and held it gently in her hand. The girls were thrilled when he cocked his little head and blinked his shiny black eyes at them. "Here, you hold him, Betty, I’m going to get the step ladder and put him back in his nest.” Mary Lou was back in a jiffy, half dragging the ladder across the soft lawn. After placing it firmly against the tree trunk, she climbed up to a place where she could reach the bird's nest. “Hand him up to me, Betty, please. I’ll soon have him back in his little home.” Then very gently Mary Lou placed the tiny bird in the nest. But just as she was about to come down, she discovered Boots, almost hidden by the leaves, stretched out on a limb near the nest. “Oh! You sly Boots! Come right down from there,” scolded Mary Lou. Mary Lou reached through the leaves and gave Boots a push which sent him scrambling down to the ground. And just then she lost her balance. The next minute she came tumbling down and lay very still at Betty’s feet. “Oh! Mary Lou!” Betty cried in a frightened voice, kneeling beside her little friend. “Please open your eyes and speak to me. If only your monther were here to help me!” Betty looked wildly about, then scrambling to her feet, she ran to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Her hands were trembling so much she could not carry the water with out spilling it. Then she remem bered that she wasn’t alone. "Jesus is with me,” she thought, and prayed as she hurried back to Mary Lou: “Please, dear Jesus, help me to help Mary Lou. Bring her mother home, dear Lord.” Betty was halfway across the lawn
“I guess that's right, Betty. Re member our Bible verse for yesterday ‘Be ye kind one to another’ ? That means helping one another.” Mary Lou was placing the pretty yellow bowl of fruit on the table. The girls soon had the lunch ready, and as they sat down at the table, Mary Lou said, “Now, Betty, you ask the blessing.” In God’s Care Estelle M. Grant "I’ve just learned a new blessing.” Then the two girls bowed their heads and closed their eyes while Betty said her new grace: “Dear Jesus, Thou art great and thou art good, And we thank thee for this food; By Thy hand will we be fed. Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen.” They were having a wonderful time, chatting and eating, when Bet ty exclaimed, “O, Mary Lou, see that baby robin hopping about on the lawn! He’s so wobbly.” “He must have fallen out of the nest up there in the apple tree. Isn’t he tiny and cute?” They watched for a minute. Then suddenly Mary Lou sprang up so quickly, she almost overturned the table. "Oh! There’s Boots! He’ll gob ble up the baby bird if we don’t stop him. Boots! Boots!” she screamed, trying to divert the big gray and white cat, while she strug gled with the screen door latch. But Boots was crouching, ready to pounce upon the bird. Mary Lou had learned in Bible school that not even a spar row could fall to the ground without God’s seeing and caring for it. “Dear Lord,” she gasped, “a robin is as dear as a sparrow. Help me to be in time.”
she skipped down the street toward
Page Seventeen
AUGUST, 1947
Made with FlippingBook Online document