The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1869-09-23
YOUTHS DEPARTMENT.
Poor Little Joe.

WHAT a cause for great thankfulness It
is to have strong, active bodies-to be able
to hop, skip and jump, to go errands, walk
to school, and q thousand other things
which happy and healthy children delight
to do
Poor little Joe could do none of these
things; he was a cripple, and always
looked i'll. Though great sufferer, he
was nearly always smiling and good-tem-
pered. There was something so good and
so winning about him that everybody
liked him.
We have said he was cripple; yes, so
lame and so weak that he never could get
up or down stairs alone, and only now
and then few yards about a room or
along the pavement.
When the writer saw him one day, he
was about ten years of age and as he was
growing up he was anxious to learn to
write and understand arithmetic.
His mother was very fond of him and
very kind to him, as good mothers always
are, especially to such children as are so
helpless as poor little Joe was. She there
fore INDUCED his wish TO learn by carry
ing him to school
Joe soon became general favorite.
However rude or rough the other boys
knocked against or hurt him.
They would as soon have thought of
pushing or hitting little baby brother or
sister as their poor helpless schoolfellow.
JOe's mother was soon relieved of the
trouble of bringing or fetching her boy.
Two boys were regularly seen at her door
twice a day, before school-time, tc help
Joe to school, and two others were always
ready to help him home.
1t was very pleasing to see the kindness
and tenderness of these lads.
Sometimes Joe was too i'll to come to
school at such times two or three of his
schoolfcllows were found taking it in turn
to 90 and spend part of their play y-time
with him, amusing him, or reading TO
him.
One day, it was breaking-up day, the
books, states, etc, were all cleared away,
and the signal was just ready to be given,
"All home for the holidays" when the
teacher, who liked bit of fun, brought
out of his desk two quarts of nuts and be
gan to scramble them.
After some ten minutes of hot excite
ment and hard scrambling, the nuts were
all picked up.
As the boys stood. some laughing, some
rubbing their knees or elbows or heads,
some counting their nuts, some cracking
and eating them, and some looking rather
dull, for they had not got many, all at once
the masters eve caught poor Joes, as
he was sitting patient and smiling in his
corner.
ooh, we have forgotten joe" he said,
and was in the act of putting his hand in
his pocket to find him a penny, when Il
voice shouted: "Let us each give him one
nut" Twas no sooner said than done.
Poor little Joe's hands were filled: every
body was pleased
'Tis not always that boys are as kind
and thoughtful as these poor lads were,
but it made them happy, and it will make
others happy too, if they try to do good
TO take care of the weak.
Joe did not grow up to be man. One
winter-time he was taken very i'll; no
nursing or medicine could save him. He
died and went to Heaven. His school
fellows missed him very much. His
mother and his sister missed him more,
but they hardly knew how to cry about
it, for they could not help feeling thank
full that Jesus had taken the poor suffering
child to he with Him, where there is no
more pain.
Children, if you are well, strong, and
happy. thank God, "who daily lOadeth
you with benefits" and don't forget to be
kind and good to the weak and sick, and
lame or old. To do this is TO do what you
can to be like Him who went about doing
good"
"Be We kind one to another, tender
hearted. ."-Hedrth and Home.