Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1879-09-03
YOUTHS COLUMN.

Fire Little SHtcheS.-Five little stitch
esl And they were taken more than
twenty-five years ago. And why
should they be remembered more than
thousands of other stitches taken by
the same fingers. | will tell you.
Little Rose went to the '.iniant
school" then. lt was a very happy
place for the little folks. They had no
hard lessons in Arithmetic or Geogra-
ply. The nearest approach TO lessons
was saying over the multiplication
table" in sort of rhyming concert
s.Twice one are two, twice two are
four:" while the teacher slid along the
little wooden balls on the wire frame,
TO suit the words. No, but when the
marching and singing were over, there
we're plenty of busy fingers learning 10
sew.
Rose was making blocks of patch
work-''nine patch, /" her mother called
il. You all know what that is Roses
mother cut the small squares and basted
them neatly for Rose to sew ''over and
over'' one block a day. And it was
Roses special delight to show her
mother the neatly finished block each
night, and be able to say, 81 did it all
myself.
One warm June day Rose found her
needle rather dull, and the new pink
chintz SO hard To sew; her fingers trem-
bied, when she came TO where the four
corners met, and she tried in vain, with
her little thimbleless finger, 70 push the
needle through so many thlcknesses of
cloth. She looked at the little girl who
sat next to her on the same bencL-an
older girl than Rose by two years, and
rich in the possession of 'real silver"
thimble. Rose passed the block to
Pogue "a curious name, but her very
own, and il rhymed with her surname,
tOo), and mOtioned to a little hard cor
ner, touching her thimble and noddlng
aud winking significantly. Pogue un-
derstood, and taking the nine-paIch, :,
sewed very neatly over the hard place
Rose watching carefully lest she
should do too much. One, two, three,
four, five stitches, and oh, so neatly
done!
Rose bowed ard smiled her thanks,
and put in a stitch or two as neatly as
possible next TO the "five," when she
stopped in diSmay at thought that
popped INTO her conscientious little
head. al can't tell mother did il my
self" 1t would have taken away half
her pleasure not 10 be able to say this.
And yet il was so very little-only just
five stitches 2" 81 needn't mind that, T"
came the temptation, 81 can say | did
il myself, for that's almost nothing"
"But 1t Is help" another voice said,
"Bnd you'd better say | did it nearly
ALL" But Rose couldn't make up her
mind 10 say this. Her mother would
be sure 10 think if Pogue sewed any OF
it, likely she made half the block, at
least one seam across. So you see il
was real struggle. And how 10 you
suppose she settled il?
After looking at it about as long as
it has taken me TO tell you this, Rose
unthread her needle and very deliber-
ately picked out those five stitches, and
then went to work and sewed them
over herself. And she is glad to-day
that she did. Not because il might not
have been foolish for her to be so
anxious about the credit of doing the
work all herself-nO; but because it
was her first resistance to the tempta-
ton To tell falsehOodi And resistance
once always makes it easier to resist
again. So | do not think Rose ever
told deliberate fslsehOod since that
day when she came so near making a
black spot In her memory instead of a
bright one.
Does any little girl think Rose made
too much OF such little thing? Oh, no.
Ii Is just as much stealing to take five
pennies from anOther's purse as five
dollars, and il would have been as much
a falsehOO1 for Rose to have left Pogue's
i've little stitches in her work and said
she "did it all, as if Pogue had sewed
half the block, and she had said the
same thing. And Rose knew it, and is
glad 10 day, as she was then, that il
she must have credit for doing ali the
work she picked out those "iye little
Stitches