always very brave, and I very
cowardly. One day Clara got one of these slivers in her hand, a
very bad one, and while mama was taking it out, Clara stood
perfectly still without even wincing: I saw how brave she was and
turning to mamma said "Mamma isn't she a brave little thing!"
presently mamma had to give the little hand quite a dig with the
needle and noticing how perfectly quiet Clara was about it she
exclaimed, Why Clara! you are a brave little thing! Clara responded
"No bodys braver but God!"--

Clara's pious remark is the main detail, and Susy has accurately
remembered its phrasing. The three-year-older's wound was of a
formidable sort, and not one which the mother's surgery would have been
equal to. The flesh of the finger had been burst by a cruel accident. It
was the doctor that sewed it up, and to all appearances it was he, and
the other independent witnesses, that did the main part of the
suffering; each stitch that he took made Clara wince slightly, but it
shrivelled the others.

I take pride in Clara's remark, because it shows that although she was
only three years old, her fireside teachings were already making her a
thinker--a thinker and also an observer of proportions. I am not
claiming any credit for this. I furnished to the children worldly
knowledge and wisdom, but was not competent to go higher, and so I left
their spiritual education in the hands of the mother. A result of this
modesty of mine was made manifest to me in a very striking way, some
years afterward, when Jean was nine years old. We had recently arrived
in Berlin, at the time, and had begun housekeeping in a furnished
apartment. One morning at breakfast a vast card arrived--an invitation.
To be precise, it was a command from the Emperor of Germany to come to
dinner. During several months I had encountered socially, on the
Continent, men bearing lofty titles; and all this while Jean was
becoming more and more impressed, and awed, and subdued, by these
imposing events, for she had not been abroad before, and they were new
to her--wonders out of dreamland turned into realities. The imperial
card was passed from hand to hand, around the table, and examined with
interest; when it reached Jean she exhibited excitement and emotion, but
for a time was quite speechless; then she said,

"Why, papa, if it keeps going on like this, pretty soon there won't be
anybody left for you to get acquainted with