Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-23


heart. 1t is, in way, humorous
story but it contains beautiful moral:
"Dd you ever want anything awful bad,
and then have it come? Then you know how
/ felt when that package came from my
auntie in New York, and / opened it and
found pair of real silk mitts. Jack said
they were just 'splendor-ific,' and Jacks my
brother, and he knows.
'T had wanted some for ever so long, but
] didn't say much about it, cause when you
live in a little cuddled-up house, and your
papa has to buy bread and shoes for so many,
the money all flies away before it gets around
to what little girls want.
ri don't know how auntie found it out,
unless Santa Claus told her, and it wasn't
near Christmas-time, either. They were such
pretty brown mitt!s Tilly Jones said they
were just the color of my hands, but / didn't
care for that. Little hands will get brown
when they weed the garden and do so many
things. 1 looked at them most a hundred
times in two days, guess and then it came
Sunday. Wasn't glad l put them on and
walked to church, just SO. Jack says l hold
my paws like scared rabbit, but l didn't
ever see a rabbit with mtts on.
"It isn't right to think too much about
school, and by-and-by I didn't, for we had
such q good Sunday school I forgot every
thing else.
ga missionary man told all the folks about
some poor little children away off; how the
fire had burned down their school-house, and
they hadn't any nice houses or clothes or any
thing, but they were trying so hard to get
along and to learn! And he said what was
given to those little ones was just the same
as giving to Jesus. Think of that! Just the
same as giving to the dear Christ child. 1
supposed everybody would give. Why, some
of the folks are worth as much as ten or a
hundred dollars, and yet that basket stayed
most empty.
81 did wish I was rich, and all at once 1
remembered the poor widow in the Bible.
I'd read it that very morning-how she had
given her two mitts, every living mitt she
had; it said so. So | slipped mine off and
dropped them into the basket, and l was
glad, if my throat did all choke up. But
pretty soon, when that basket was carried up,
the gentleman picked them right out.
Has any little girl lost her gloves?
Nobody said anything, and he asked again:
"'Did any little girl drop her gloves in the
basket by mistake?
at was awful still in that room, and l
thought he was looking right at me; so had
to say something.
"1t wasn't a mistake 1 told him; Il
wanted to help and hadn't any money, but
knew how the poor woman in the Bible gave
her two mltts, and So
"Then those folks just shouted, they did,
and 1 felt as if I'd like to drop right down
through the floor.
"I knew 1 had made some dreadful blum
der, but | couldn't see what, for if mites
don't spell mitts, what does it spell? Course
I cried, but my teacher put her arm right
around me, and whispered, Never mind,
little Nellie;' and she stood up and said,
with her voice all trembling:
%Dear friends, this little girl has given
her greatest treasure. Have we older ones
Some way, the money just poured into
that basket after that, and the missionary
looked gladder and gladder. They brought
my mitts back to me, and teacher said she
would show me how to get some money to
give.
when that gentleman counted it, his eyes
grew all wet, and he said softly ,(though :!
didn't know what. he meant), "A little child
shall lead them