CHAPTER X.

THE RIDE.

UP at the nursery window, Bessie and Jamie were looking out, wondering why the visitors went away so soon.

"Now," said papa, "I'll tell you my plan. I'm going to devote the day to making you forget your trials. Bessie, Junior, would you like a ride? Come, nurse, dress baby as quick as you can. We are going to spend the day visiting."

"Mamma," said Bessie, as soon as they were seated in the carriage, "does God love boys when they say 'wont' to their papa?"

"No, my dear."

"Doesn't Lewis want God to love him then?"

"I'm afraid he doesn't know much about God."

Bessie was so astonished she could scarcely speak; but presently she said, with a quivering lip:—

"I'm glad our Jamie doesn't act so. I think it's awful wicked. Nurse says he played at prayer-time."

"My little daughter," said papa, looking around to the back seat, "you must thank God that he has given you and Jamie a good mamma who has taught you to do better than Lewis. Papa feels as if he had never thanked God as he ought."

"May I say a little prayer now, papa?"

"Yes, my dear."

Bessie shut her eyes, folded her plump hands, and said, softly:—

"I thank you, dear God, for my mamma. I thank you for papa, and Jamie, and nurse, and Nellie. I thank you for making me so good. I don't want to act like naughty boys; but I don't thank you for Lewis, 'cause he's awful wicked. I wish you wouldn't let him come here any more to make my mamma cry. Dear God, I'm going to be good all the time now. When my mamma says, Bessie come here, I hope I'll never say 'I wont.' Please, God, forgive all the naughty things I did when I was a baby, and make my Jamie grow into a man quick. Amen."

"Wasn't that a good prayer?" asked Bessie, when she had finished. "Wont God like to hear it, and wont he love me?"

"God is a very kind Father," answered Mr. Corwin, in a solemn tone. "He loves to hear children ask him for what they want."

"Nancy says I make real nice prayers," urged the little girl, in a self-complacent tone.

"God is very kind, Bessie, to let us pray to him at all. For whose sake does he hear us?"

Bessie shook her head, wondering what mamma meant.

"When papa prays, my dear, who does he ask to bless us?"

"Jesus Christ. I love Jesus, 'cause he was so good to little children. I showed Nellie the picture."

"Nellie can say a pretty verse about Jesus," said mamma. "Shall I repeat it to you?

"'Little child, when you're at play, Do you know that Jesus sees you? He it is who made the day; Sunshine, birds, and flowers to please you. Oh, then thank him much, and pray To be grateful every day.

"'Little child, when you are bad, Do you think that Jesus knows it? Yes; and oh, it makes him glad When you're sorry and disclose it. Oh, then tell him quick, and pray To grow better every day.'"

"I'm going to learn it when I'm a big girl. I'm going to learn all the verses in the Bible; and then I can teach them to Jamie. Wouldn't that be nice?"

The little fellow lay in mamma's arms, sucking away at his thumb, almost asleep.

"Isn't he a darling?" asked Bessie, giving his foot which lay in her lap a squeeze. "Mamma, shouldn't you throw him out of the carriage if he acted like Lewis, and said 'I wont'?"

"No, dear, I should ask God to make him better."

"Don't mammas ever throw their boys away then?"

"Yes, Bessie, there are some countries a great way from us, where the people never saw a Bible, and never heard of the good God. They are not kind to each other. Sometimes they leave their little babies to starve, or throw them into the water to drown."

"Oh, dear!" cried Bessie. "I'm so sorry for the dear babies. I wouldn't do so. I would get some milk, and feed them, and give them nice playthings."

"Perhaps, my darling, if God had not given us the Bible to teach us how to live, we should have been cruel like the poor heathen. We must thank him for the Bible."

"Papa," said Bessie, "may I sit with you? Then Jamie can lie down on the seat. He's asleep now."

"Yes, my dear; I should like your company in front, if you will sit very still. I wouldn't like to spill you out."

"O papa, how funny you are! I couldn't be spilled."

"Why didn't you bring nurse, Alice?" asked Mr. Corwin.

"Because there was so much to do to put the Nest in order," she answered, laughing. "I found that little alabaster image could be mended; and I told nurse when she was through her work, she might take it to town, as she had some errands there. Lewis did more damage to our furniture in one hour than Bessie has in her whole life. I left Nancy trying to get up the grease-stains from the dining-room carpet."

"Well, let Lewis go," said papa cheerfully; "I hope his parents will come to their senses before it's too late. I think the captain's faith in his wife's management is rather shaken. So their visit to us may not be lost after all."

"I wouldn't have believed Adeline could have been so altered," said Mrs. Corwin, sadly. "I remember when we roomed together that she used to plead a headache as an excuse for lying in bed on Sunday; and she never liked my sitting up to read the Bible; but otherwise she was very agreeable."

"You remind me," said the gentleman, "of a hymn I once learned which contained these lines:—

"'Twill save us from a thousand snares, To mind religion young.'"

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