The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-09-16
How Fast Fritz Grew.


"Grandpa," shouted a little boy.
bounding into sunshlny porch where
an old, white-haired man sat reading
his paper" grandpa, Pm seven years
old to-day; and I've got on trousers,
and I'm going to begin school,"
Why, why" said the old gentleman,
laying down his paper, how many
things are happening all together!"
Grandpa was about as far from the
end of his life as Fritz was from the
beginning, and there seemed wide
difference between the bent form, white
head and feeble gait of the one, and the
shining, bright curls that shook and
nodded at the bounding steps of the
other. Yet grandpa and Fritz were
great chums, and loved and understood
each other perfectly.
And now, grandpa, measure me up
against your WALL" continued our new
school-boy, $50 that can tell Just how
much l have grown by the beginning
Of another term"
So grandpa took out his pencil; and,
while Fritz stood with his back to the
wall, very stiff aud still and straight,
grandpa put his spectacle-case on the
boys head to get his exact level, and
marked him off on the clean, white
paint, writing his name and age and the
day of the month and the year.
But stop, Fritz" said grandpa, as
he was running off; GIVE only meas
ured one-third of you"
Fritz looked puzzled.
els your body all of your" asked
grandpa.
"No, sir 1 s'pect I've got mind,
too" answered Fritz; but he spoke
doubtfully.
Yes, mind to do your sums with,
and heart to love God and his crea-
lures with. Don't you see I've only
measured one-third of you? Come,
and I'll measure your mind. How
much arithmetic do you know? As
for as multiplication Good. And
you are in the second reader? Very
well. Now write your name down
here in my notebook, and put these
facts down, that l may take the meas
ure of your reading, writing, and arith-
metic."
Fritz, highly amused, took the pen
Gil and wrote in very clumsy hand
Frederick Jones, multiplication and
second reader"
And what about my hearth" the lit
tie boy asked, presently.
Grandpa looked very grave, and was
silent for minute. Then he said:
"Did you please your mother by get
ting down in time for prayers this
morning ?"
"No, SIR"
Odd you look for little sister Lucv's
doll that she lost Yesterday ?''
mo, sir"
did you carry Mrs. Parsons the
honey she told you TO ask your mother
for, to help her cough ?''
Why, grandpa, forgot all about it,"
The old man did not say word, but
began to write in his notebook: and
Fritz, looking over his shoulder, man
aged to spell out these words" He
that loveth not his brother whom he
hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not SEEM"
A year passed away, and again we
find Fritz on his grandpa's knee. Grand
pas step is slower, and his voice weaker,
and his eyesight somewhat DINNER.
Fritz is somewhat changed, too. His
curls are shorter, and his trousers are
longer, his shoulders broader, and, when
A'N pNNho uP W VIZ wan, pCbOih1 lAC 10
way above last years mark. He reads
in a fourth reader now, and knows some
thing about fractions; and when he
writes his name the letters do not tum-
bic down and sprawl about as they did
last year. "And now about that other
measure ?" asks grandpa.
Fritz is silent; but the old man puts
his ann around him, and says tenderly:
a" / heard mamma say yesterday that
Fritz was her greatest comfort Lucy
cried when she found Fritz's holiday
was over, and old Dame Parsons said
she would be lost without that boys
helping hand"
Again grandpa wrote in his little
book; and, though the writing was
shaky, Fritz could read it plainly this
time: "If ye fulfil the royal law, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as myself We
do we'll"
"Now, Fritz, boy" he said, that's
the best growing up you've done this
year. "-Ehzabeh u. Allen, in the Pres
JUteridn