JOHNNY'S TRUST.
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Y the industry of Johnny, and the wages of his kind mother, the family at the cottage had passed a very comfortable summer; but now work was scarce, and the widow looked forward with some dread to the cold weather.
She well knew that more thanone third of the women who worked for the factory had received no hose for several weeks; and that it was only through her friend's exertions that Mr. Miles sent it regularly to her.
Then, although her earnings had provided them with abundance of good plain food, yet this sum, even if continued, would not supply fuel and warm clothes. Nor was there anything to pay for mending the roof, where the rain dripped in during every shower.
It was on a dreary November evening that Mrs. Talbot talked with her son while Ella, untroubled by anxiety or care, lay soundly sleeping in the bed at the farther corner of the room.
With a sigh, the widow told her boy she feared trouble was before them.
"Everything seems dark," she went on; "I can't see where help to carry us through the winter is coming from. We can't live in this house much longer unless ithas new shingles on the roof; and I know that is a very costly job. Then we all need warm clothes. I'm afraid, Johnny, you'll have to leave school and work harder than you have ever worked before;" and she sighed again.
Johnny's chin trembled. "I can't work in the mill, mother," he began, trying to keep back a sob. "One of the men told me to-day there were no orders from the merchants, and they would have to stop."
The widow covered her pale facewith her hands. "We shall starve, then," she cried out, in a voice of agony. "Oh, if your father were only alive!"
She leaned on the table and wept bitterly.
"Mother," faltered Johnny, drawing his coat-sleeve across his eyes; "mother, you told me our heavenly Father loves us better than any earthly father. Won't he help us if we pray to him? Don't cry so, mother; I think he knows about it, and perhaps he'll take care of us,as he did when we were starving before."
"Johnny! Johnny! I've been wicked. I've been doubting him all day. Yes, my child, he is good, merciful, and true to his promises, even to poor, weak creatures like me. We will pray, and we will trust. I feel happier already. I have been carrying my burden of care when he says we may cast it on him. Come, Johnny, we will pray."
They kneeled together by thefirelight; and the woman, with a full heart, thanked her heavenly Father for her precious boy,—that his faith had not wavered when she so wickedly doubted his power or his willingness to help them. She thanked him again for his former care of them, and she urged his gracious promise, "I will be the widow's God, and a father to the fatherless."
She arose and took her seat with almost a smile.
"All my anxiety has gone," shesaid, in a cheerful tone; "I know my heavenly Father is able and willing to help us. Johnny, my precious boy, how could I murmur when you and Ella are spared?"
"I prayed in my heart all the way home," faltered the boy; "I didn't know what we should do; but I kept saying to myself,—
"'God knows all about it,—just as he did about Joseph in prison.'"
His mother drew him to her side, and kissed his forehead.
"Now you must go to bed," shesaid. "Though we trust God for the future, we must do all we can to help ourselves. I have work for another week; and you must be off early to yours. When this fails, I feel sure that we shall be provided for somehow."
Johnny lay quiet on his couch, and his mother thought him asleep. She read chapter after chapter of God's holy word, comforting herself in his gracious promises, when she was startled by hearing her boy say,—
"Mother, there's my silver dollar, you know. That will buy a good deal."
"Yes, dear."
Her voice trembled. She knew how much he prized that dollar, and how often Mr. Miles had asked to see it, "to be sure," he said, "that it was not lost or forfeited." She resolved that not until everything else had been sacrificed should that dollar be parted with.
Two days later Johnny ran home with the joyful announcement,—
"Mrs. Miles has come home! I've seen her. She beckoned me to go in, and, O mother! what do you think she showed me? The cunningest little baby I ever saw. She wants you to come right over, and she——"
Mrs. Talbot interrupted him by saying,—
"That is good news! I'll go at once, and take Ella, so that I can stay and help her. Rake up the fire as quickly as you can, and put on Ella's hood."
"I felt a little troubled for you," exclaimed the lady, when, after a cordial embrace, she had heard a confession of the widow's fears; "but I am sure all will come out right and bright. That dear Johnny! I hope my boy will be just like him;" and here she gave the baby a good squeeze.
"If the mill is shut, as I suppose it must be, we shall go to my father's for the winter. It will be a trial to all of us; but we will trust it is for the best. My husband toldme that he should know certainly at the end of another week. If no orders come in before that time, they can't keep on."
Mrs. Talbot took the baby and began to caress it to hide her troubled face; but presently said, with a smile,—
"How thankful we ought to be that there is One who orders all events in our lives, and that this Being is he who calls himself our Father."
JOHNNY'S NEW FATHER.
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HE cold weather came on early this year. As he ran shivering home from school, Johnny saw, at almost every house, the preparations for winter. Here was a pile of wood, and there a large heap of coal, suggestive of warmth and comfort. Two days more and the important questionabout the factory would be decided. If Mrs. Miles went away, it would be very desolate. God only knew how they should be able to get along.
He thought of all this one night as he was returning from the factory, and to comfort himself began humming his favorite tune,—
"I have a Father in the promised land."
As he came in sight of the cottage, he wondered at the bright light which reflected from the windows;but he wondered still more at the scene presented within.
Their one table was set in the middle of the floor, and spread with such abundance as he had never seen there. His mother was hurrying to and fro, and intent on the cakes she was frying, while at the same time she talked with a well-dressed man who sat near the fire holding Ella in his lap.
"I haven't forgotten your favorite dish," she said, with an arch smile. "You liked rye frittersbest, while Dexter preferred buckwheats."
"Ah, there is Johnny!" exclaimed the stranger, holding out his hand. "Don't you remember me?"
It was, indeed, an old friend,—the man who had been watched and nursed by Mrs. Talbot and her husband, and from whom she had never since heard. He had spent a week in searching for her, he said; and now he meant to take care of her and the children.
After supper, he rocked Ella to sleep, and then begged to hold her awhile; for, he said, "I have something to tell you."
"You know I had not fully recovered when I went away," he began. "I tried to thank you, but I couldn't; my heart was too full. I heard of Dexter's death, and felt that I had lost a brother. The next thing I did was to make a resolution to be a brother to you and yours. I worked hard and saved every penny. Not that I thoughtmoney could pay you for your care of me; but I felt that you might need help.
"There," he added, holding out a package, "is the first I earned. I laid it aside for you."
The widow's face flushed as she saw written on a corner of the wrapper, "Two hundred dollars."
"I found a good place and succeeded well. Every day I repeated the prayer Johnny taught me on my sick-bed, and God answered it. I saw my need of a Saviour, andgladly accepted the one offered me in the Bible. I wrote again and again to you, sending my letters to our old place; but I had no reply. At last I grew too anxious to wait longer, and, settling my business, I set out to find you. I wish I had started a year ago."
"God's time is the best time," murmured the widow, her eyes full of tears.
Then Mr. Hardy bade Johnny bring the Bible, and they had reading and prayers together.
Early as the widow rose the next morning, their guest was up before her, and on the roof examining the building. In the course of the day the leak was stopped, the broken steps mended, and a new lock put on the door.
Toward night he went out, but soon returned with a wagon containing a barrel of flour, two casks of potatoes, beside sundry small parcels. An hour later the wagon came again with a neat bedstead, mattress, and two stout blankets,and a whole web of cotton cloth for sheets.
Mrs. Talbot clasped her hands on her breast, saying to herself, "The Lord has, indeed, appeared for me." When she tried, with a broken voice; to thank Mr. Hardy, he only smiled as he said,—
"Wait a little. You'll find I'm selfish after all."
They had a long talk that evening, after the children were asleep, which accounted perhaps for the pretty pink in the widow's cheek,when Johnny saw her the next morning.
"Come here, my boy," said Mr. Hardy, drawing a stool to his side; "I loved your father. He was one of the best men I ever knew. But as he is gone, your mother last night consented that I should be a father to you and Ella. Will you be my true and loving son?"
He opened his arms, and Johnny was clasped to his breast.
"I will try to be a good son," he whispered.
As Mr. Hardy urged there was no use in delay, the next Sabbath morning they went to the Rector's house and were married, Mr. Miles giving the bride away.
When Mr. Hardy examined the cottage, he did it with the resolution to repair it, if it proved worth the expense. But he found many of the timbers rotten, and the sills sunken into the ground. He thought it better, therefore, to put up a new house, for which he had abundant means. He hired an oldbarn, and fitted it up for a shop, and then, when not otherwise engaged, labored diligently at getting out the frame, doors, and windows for his new building.
THE NEW HOUSE.
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HE factory was closed, but only for a few weeks. Just as Mr. Miles was making preparation to leave, orders came in, which obliged him to employ all their old hands.
Johnny did not leave school, but worked two hours in the morning, as before. He did not work atnight, because his new father insisted that every boy must have some time to play; and then, when Mr. Hardy began to have more work than he could do, Johnny must get kindlings for his mother, or run of errands for her.
In the spring the new house was finished; a plain, neat building, with a pretty portico over the front door. Johnny and his mother often talked about their old trials, and always remembered with pleasure that in the hour of their sorest need, theydid not forget to trust in the great and good God.
Would you like to know what kind of a house it was to be? I will try to describe it as Mr. Hardy did to Johnny and his mother one evening, with Ella sitting on his knee.
"There," he said, drawing a plan on Johnny's slate, "is the front door, which leads into the entry. Out of this on one side is a room, which we will call the Sunday-room; because I shall, by and by,have an organ in there, and we will sing psalm tunes on Sunday."
Johnny gave a scream of delight, and Ella asked, "May I sing, too?"
"Certainly, my dear. Now here on the other side is the room where we shall live and take our meals. Behind the front entry is a large closet, into which I mean to put lockers and drawers, so that your mother can keep her dishes nicely arranged, as they used to be in her old home. I remember," he added, with a smiling glance at his wife,"how cosily the room used to look when Dexter and I came home from our work, and how I thought I should be the happiest man living if I had somebody to care for me as you did for Dexter.
"Besides, there will be a kitchen and a shed beyond, where you will have a chance to cut and pile wood. Ella must have some work, too, and so here goes the chicken-house, where she will have to feed the biddies, and find the nice white eggs. Upstairs, Johnny, therewill be four chambers, beside a tiny room over the front entry."
"Mother is crying!" exclaimed Ella, springing to the floor.
"It seems like a dream, a happy dream," said Mrs. Hardy, softly. "Only a few weeks ago, and we were so destitute, and knew not where to turn for help!"
"But we prayed to God, mother, and he heard us. I guess that's why he sent Mr. Hardy here, don't you?"
Transcriber's Note: Obvious punctuation errors repaired.