Part 4

"Don't you see, Frank, that under God's blessing, every boy has it in his own power to choose whether his life shall be lived and ended like John's or like William E. Dodge's?"

"It was a good sermon, Kent," Frank said soberly, as they walked up to the house. "It helps me; I'll not forget."

THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY.

HOW often Grace and Nellie had heard these words.

"I'm sick to death of them," said Nellie. "I am going to try to have the most fun I can to-morrow, and I'll risk but what I'll be happy enough."

"And I am going to try grandma's way of having fun to-morrow. Just for a change, I am going to do everything 'exactly right.' She seems so sure that that way is the best. Do you suppose there are any good plays or jolly times for little girls who always do every thing 'perfectly right?'"

"Why, no, Gracie! You know that if you are going to be very good to-morrow, you ought to sew on papa's handkerchief, so as to finish it for his birthday present. I can't finish mine, for I've planned to go sailing on Tom's raft on the duck pond. I shall take all my dolls, land on the little island, and pull of my shoes and stockings, and play I am Robinson Crusoe, and the ducks will be the savages, and when they come swimming towards me, I shall hide in the bushes, or else jump on the raft and push out to sea. You had better come too, and be my man Friday."

"But, Nellie, you know mamma said for us not to play on the duck pond, for we always wet our feet."

"Yes; but I shall wear rubbers this time, and it was last week she said that; she did not say we should not play there to-morrow."

"Well! You must play there alone, for I am going to try grandma's way of being happy for one whole day, and if I don't like it, next day I will play on the duck pond."

These two little girls were twin sisters, eight years old. They were pretty, bright, and full of fun, and now they were going to have a week's vacation; a whole week without study, and they had planned plays enough to last most little girls three weeks.

But last night grandma had told them a long and interesting story about a boy who always did just as he pleased in every thing. He was selfish and disobedient, but he was never happy. At last he was so unhappy and miserable, that he made up his mind to give up his naughty ways and to be a good boy, and behold, everything was changed.

"So you see, my dears, as I have often told you, in order to be happy, you must be good."

[Illustration: NELLIE LEFT AT HOME.]

"I am sick of that sort of stories," said Nellie.

"I am going to try for one day to see if I can be happy by being good," said Gracie thoughtfully.

The next morning dawned bright and warm.

"Such a lovely day for my play," said Nellie, as she tucked a big piece of cake in her pocket, and with her arms full of dollies, went dancing off across the fields to the pond.

"That child can't be going to the pond, after all I said the other day," said mamma, glancing anxiously after Nellie.

"Oh no!" said grandma. "She is probably going to play in the grove by the side of it."

"And so my little Grace is going to finish her present for papa's birthday," said mamma with a pleased look at the little girl, who was stitching away in the window.

"I feel a little bit happy now," thought Gracie, as she saw her mother's smiling face. But it was a long hour, and the little fingers felt very lame before the handkerchief was done, but at last the last stitch was taken, and it was carefully folded and a card marked, "Papa from Gracie," pinned on it, all ready to put by his plate to-morrow morning at breakfast.

"Children, do you want to go with me to spend the day at aunt Mary's?" calls papa, from the doorway. "Just put on your hats; the horse is harnessed, and I am waiting. Where is Nellie?"

At that moment Nellie came in at the door, wet and dirty, with the blood dropping from a cut on her forehead, and crying bitterly.

"Oh, my poor little girl, where have you been?" said mamma, as she wiped the blood from her face.

"I was Robinson Crusoe," sobbed Nellie, "and the cake was my provisions, and when the savages saw my cake they came swimming and flying all on to my raft; then I tried to push them off, and I tumbled right into the water and mud, and they got my cake; and my dollies are drowned."

"So you went to the duck pond to play; you knew better than that," said mamma sternly.

"If she has disobeyed you, she must stay at home," said papa. "Come, Gracie!"

In a moment they were driving along the beautiful shady road that led to aunt Mary's. At first, Gracie felt too sorry for Nellie to be very happy. But her father, noticing her sad face, told her that if Nellie was a good girl, he would take her next week, and then he told so many funny stories about himself when he was a little boy, that it was not long before she was laughing merrily.

What a welcome they had at aunt Mary's.

"We knew you were coming to-day," said Katie, who was Gracie's cousin, "and we are freezing ice-cream down cellar."

Then they took their dolls and played happily together all day long. When Gracie was riding home she told her father that she had never had such a happy day before in her life.

"Oh, such a lovely time as I have had!" she exclaimed, as she bounded into the house.

Grandma was rocking Nellie in her arms, and was just finishing her evening story.

"And so you see, my dear, that just as soon as Jacob made up his mind to be a good boy, all his troubles ended. Everybody loved him, and he was very happy and good."

"I like your kind of stories to-night, grandma," said Nellie softly, in the old lady's ear, "and I am going to be good to be happy all the rest of the week."

"Say all the rest of your life, my dear," whispered back grandma.

THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY.

YOU'VE never seen a palace? Why, my dears, you have seen a great many. Sit round me here, and I will tell you about one, the ruins of which you saw this morning. In some respects it was quite remarkable; not much like the one Queen Victoria lives in.

This palace had six walls, and only one room. There were three inner walls, and three outer ones, and wherever two inner walls met, an outer wall covered the place. The people who dwelt in the palace called the walls the "Perianth." Each of the inner walls were called a "petal," and each of the outer ones a "sepal." They were covered outside and inside with snowy white silk, filled with the most delicious perfume. There were no windows, for each wall tapered to a point at, the upper end, and drooped over the outside of the palace, leaving it, open to the light and the pure air.

A house of so delicate a fabric could not rest on the ground without being soiled by the dust and dirt of the earth, so it was held far aloft on a slender, green column. It did not stand upright like Queen Victoria's palace, but it leaned over toward the ground, so that when the rain came down, none should remain in the palace and drown the people. They would have fallen out, too, had they not been made as fast to the floor as were the walls of the palace.

That seems dreadful to you little people who take such delight in running about on your little feet. But they were very well contented to remain where they were and only look out upon the world, for they would have died had they left their beautiful home.

The throne covered nearly all the floor of the palace; and the king stood on the centre of it. His head reached far above the walls, for he was very tall, and very straight and slender. He wore a robe of pale green, and on his head was an emerald insignia, more like a helmet than a crown. It was divided into three parts. One part drooped over and rested against the back of his head, one part against the right side, and one against the left.

There stood around the throne six tall men dressed in white, bearing salvers of gold-dust on their heads. They called the salvers "anthers," and the gold-dust "pollen," but it was not like the gold-dust you saw at the jeweler's.

I want you to notice how the number three figured in nearly everything. It was a sacred number with them. There were three inner walls, and three outer ones. Six (two threes) tall men, and the king's crown was divided into three parts.

A strange thing about the tall men was that one could not be distinguished from another, so near alike were they, and they were each named "Stamen." Although they were very tall, they were not so tall as their king. They were very faithful servants, looking always up to him to know his commands.

When the wind blew a little, they bowed down before King Pistil, and the salvers swung back and forth, causing tiny clouds of gold-dust to rise and fall upon him. Then he was glad, and bowed to them, that they might see that he was pleased with them. For he only required them to sprinkle a little gold-dust upon him, then he made it into pieces of money and packed them away into three large boxes under his throne.

But sometimes this frail palace was at the mercy of the great winds. It swayed to and fro before them, tossing the tall men about so they could not prevent some of the gold-dust falling on the walls.

Then King Pistil trembled with grief at seeing the gold-dust being wasted, and the tall men leaned toward him trying to comfort him.

Then the rain came, and fell into the palace, and washed it clean, and bathed the king and his servants; and when the sun shone again, they sparkled all over with diamonds.

But some strange people passing by stopped to admire them, and to inhale their sweet fragrance; and one of the palaces with all its inmates was carried away by them. Then there was mourning, for they knew it was certain death to any of them if their palace was taken from the column on which it rested.

King Pistil's money increased until the boxes could hold no more; and the throne began to creak as though it would fall apart. The walls of the palace were falling away too. The tall men looked old and feeble; and the king felt himself growing weak and infirm, and he knew that he soon must die. So he unlocked his money boxes, that after he was gone, they might open, and the money be scattered far and near, and other palaces spring up, and other kings live, as he had lived, giving pleasure to all who came near.

Very soon after, the king and his servants died, the boxes burst open showing them well filled with money. Some of it fell on the ground under the palace, that another might spring up there in memory of King Pistil; and some of it was carried a long distance by the wind before it was dropped on the ground.

Now, my dears, let us go into the garden, and look at the white lilies, and see if my story of their king and his palace is correct. Tell me, if you can, how his money differed from ours. Why it had to be scattered on the ground, and what it was called by King Pistil.