The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-02-11
BESSIE'S VALENTINE.

girls get everything nlce.''
"Then why don't you see that at least
one poor girl gets valentines' asked
Mrs. Dale. ~ =
"Me, mamma! How!''
Suppose you send valentine to the
poorest girl you know"
"ihat would be Hannah White. She's
awful poor, and no mistake; her toes came
right through her shoes the last time I
saw her; but I don't see how could send
a valentine, I haven't cent, you know
yourself, mamma, dear"
snake valentine, child, if Won have
no money to buy one with; can't YOU
think of any other little girl whom this
St. Valentine is likely to neglect?n
"Why there's Grace Warren, Mrs. War
ren's little lame girl; I'm sure the post
man won It go tnear her the whole day.
But the idea of making a valentino. that's
ridiculous.': RE- ...
Mrs. Dale looked ''smiley," as Bessie
would say, and went out of the room.
Pretty soon she came back with two
sheets OF pink paper, prettily embossed,
and her big scrap-book.
Bessie watched with wlde-open ewes.
tor that pink paper was her delight, and
she had often wished that mamma would
give her some of it. ,., ~
"Now get some foolscap," said Mrs
Dale, and copy the poems that | find fol-
you. When you have practised till YOU
can copy them neatly, will give you the
pink paper, and you can make your
! valentines"
| "But I can't write." ~. ...
"You can print the words, and that
will be all the better. The children will
know that the valentines came from a
child. It will make them happy to know
that some child thinks of them
so the poems were found In the scrap
book, and Bessie went to work in earnest
1t was two or three days before she could
make the verses look we'll enough to be
copied upon the pretty pink sheets. Al
last the valentines were done, and this is
the way they read.
The first was to Hannah White, the
| girl whose toes were out of her shoes
| See If you do not think it was suitable:
My little love is poor
| AS poor can be-;
! Her dress is torn and worm
| What's that to me?
her tiny toes peep from So
| .... Her ragged shoe;
| But what sweet soul fills
der eyes OF blue -,, H. 80.
My little love is good
| F> AS good can be;
| her heart is pure, and that
! ls much TO me;
And SO chose her from
| The rich and fine,
And gladly sign myself
| Her Valentine .....
The next was for the little lame girl:
I saw little body ~
Creeping ON the ground,
Scorned and forgotten
| ".. BY all the world around.
This brown little body
. Was strangely changed one day
God gave it wings Of glory,
1t rose and flew away.
All tired little bodies, .... e.
Take this thought to heart;
The body is the wrapping,
And not the nobler part.
| Though scOrned and forgotten
1t will be changed some day,
And on its wings OF glory g..
Will rise and fly away. .
Just as Bessie was printing the last
words of her second valentine, Capt Fred
came in to get Mrs. Dale te
do some mending for him. Capt. Fred
was retired military man, with lose
change in his pocket. he looked at the
| valentines and whistled a little. Then
he inquired about the lame girl and about
the little toes that were peeping out OF
somebody's shoes, as if to see what was
going on in the world.
On St. Valentines day the postman
was very busy. 1.-TWO valentines tor you
he said, as he stopped at Hannah Whites
door. "And one IS mighty big ONE
| O how surprised little Hannah was! You
| will easily guess that the big valentine
was pair Of shoes, and that Capt. Fred
seat them. But the pretty printed verses
es did her almost as much good as
the shoes; indeed, think they were
more valuable; for the shoes wore out;
| but she remembered the verses as long
| as she lived.
And the postman did not forget little
lame Grace Warren. He carried her,
beside the pink valentine, lovely, love-
~ book of stories. And did Bessie Dale
get nothing? you ask. 0 yes; Capt. Fred
sent her magnificent valentine, one of
the dalntiest to be found and she is go
proud of it that she shows it to this day.
So it often happens in this world that q
great deal Of good flows from little act
of kindness just as beautiful, blossom
ing plant comes from a little humble
seed.
The Gazette de france gives list OF