Part 2

At the close of every afternoon school, it was Mary’s practice to gather her little flock round her, and read to them out of the Bible. Sometimes, when the weather was very warm, she took them out into the woods, and sat down with them on the grass under a large oak tree. They liked to go out of doors to read; for they loved Mary, and they could sit very close to her under the oak tree while she read to them. Eddy Forester said he liked to read out of doors, for it seemed as if God was listening, up in the sky.

It was a very warm afternoon, and Mary said she would read under the oak tree.

Eddy Forester carried the Bible, and when they were all seated, Mary read to them the history of little Samuel, and how his heavenly Father called him when he lay down to sleep in the temple.

After Mary had done reading, Eddy Forester asked, why little Samuel went to Eli to inquire if he called him, when it was the Lord that called him?

Mary said, “Samuel was a very little boy, and he did not know that it was the Lord who had spoken to him. Our heavenly Father often speaks to little children now by his good Spirit, when they are too young to understand who it is that speaks to them.

“When we do right, we feel something which seems to say to us, ‘Well done!’ and then we are happy; and when we do wrong, we feel something which seems to say to us that it is wrong, and then we are unhappy.”

“Is it the Lord that makes us feel so?” asked Susan Field?

“Certainly,” said Mary, “and we should be very thankful to him that we are not happy when we have done that which we know to be wrong; and we should pray that God would teach us by his Holy Spirit what is right and what is wrong, and make us understand and love what he has taught us in the Bible.”

“Oh, yes!” said Eddy Forester, “I know what you mean, for my mother told me—the other day, when I snatched an apple from George because he would not give me a bite of it—she told me that I did not enjoy eating the apple, and it did not taste good to me, because I had been very naughty to take it away from George, and that our heavenly Father’s good Spirit was rebuking me and making me feel unhappy all the time I was eating George’s apple.”

While Eddy was talking, little Lily came and sat by Mary, and now she was sobbing and crying out aloud.

The scholars all wondered what was the matter with Lily, but Mary said,

“Never mind, Lily, now;” and she only drew Lily close to her and said, “Don’t cry, Lily dear.”

Harry Linn crept round to Lily very quietly, and took out his little picture-book, and whispered to her, “Here, Lily.”

But she was too much distressed to notice Harry, though he got as near to her as ever he could.

Mary now asked Eddy Forester to go on with what he was saying, but Eddy said he had done, and that he was glad the Lord spoke to little children now, even if they did not hear any voice, as Samuel did.

Mary wished her little scholars to understand what she read to them, and she encouraged them to ask questions, at suitable times.

She now told them if they had no more questions to ask, they might go home; all but Harry and Lily. So, they came one by one, and kissed Mary and went home.

Eddy Forester said he would wait for Lily; but Mary told him she would bring Lily home, and he might tell his mother that she kept Lily and Harry Linn to talk to them.

After Eddy was gone, Mary took Lily up in her arms, and then she called Harry to her, and told him to wipe off Lily’s tears; and Harry took his handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped Lily’s face, and he said,

“Lily, will you love me again? and then I’ll love you, and you may look at the little girl feeding her chickens as long as you like.”

Lily said, “I do love you, Harry,” and she put her arms round Harry’s neck and they kissed one another.

Then Mary tied on Lily’s bonnet for her, and Harry put on his hat, and carried the Bible back to the school-room for his teacher.

Mary locked up the school-room door and put the key in her pocket, and then she took a hand of each of her little scholars, and said,

“Now, Harry, you and I will go home with Lily, shall we?”

You will remember, my little readers, that Mary lived with Harry Linn. As they walked along, Harry seemed to be thinking about something, and at last he said,

“Mary, does our heavenly Father ever speak to little children like me and Lily?”

Mary said, “Yes! Harry, he has been speaking to you both, since you were naughty. You sinned against his good Spirit when you quarrelled, and he made you feel very unhappy because you were so disobliging to one another, and had forgotten that he had told you to love one another. But I hope you will hereafter know and obey his voice.”

“Oh!” said Lily, “I love to hear my heavenly Father’s voice.”

“So do I,” said Harry, “it makes me feel so happy.”

“You feel happy because you _obeyed_ His voice,” said Mary, “and we are always happy when we are obedient to God. He loves us so much, and is so kind to us, that he never tells us to do any thing that we cannot do; and if it seems hard, and we ask him, he will help us to do it. He tells little children to do very little things, because he loves them, and he knows they are too little to do great things.”

“I hope our heavenly Father will talk to me and Lily often,” said Harry, “do you think he will, Mary?”

“Yes, if you are good children.”

“And will he show us how to be good?” asked Lily.

“Oh, yes,” Mary said, “for you know he showed little Samuel what he would have him do.”

“Does he love Lily and me as much as he loved little Samuel, Mary,” said Harry.

Mary told him that God loved all little children, and he sent our Saviour to bless them and to bring them to him. Do you remember, Harry, what our Saviour said about little children?

“Yes,” said Harry, “He said, ‘Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not!’”

Now we are at Lily’s home.

Mary took Lily in to her mother, and told her that she kept Lily to talk to her, and Lily’s mother said,

“I am glad to see my little daughter, for her supper of nice bread and milk is all ready for her.”

Lily’s mother asked Mary and Harry to stay and eat supper; but Mary said they had not leave to stay, and Harry’s father and mother would not know where they were, if they stayed. So she thanked Lily’s mother for her invitation, and then she and Harry kissed Lily, and bade her good-night. And Mary and Harry went home.

[Illustration: THE END]

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=TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:=

Italics, bold letters, small capitals and black letter font have been converted to _ = ALL CAPS and ~ respectively.

Perceived typos have been silently corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.