FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   >>  
tely ashamed of themselves for not seeing the point, and never suspecting that the fault was not with them and there wasn't any to see. You can see by these things that she was of a rather vain and frivolous character; still, she had virtues, and enough to make up, I think. She had a kind heart and gentle ways, and never harbored resentments for injuries done her, but put them easily out of her mind and forgot them; and she taught her children her kindly way, and from her we learned also to be brave and prompt in time of danger, and not to run away, but face the peril that threatened friend or stranger, and help him the best we could without stopping to think what the cost might be to us. And she taught us not by words only, but by example, and that is the best way and the surest and the most lasting. Why, the brave things she did, the splendid things! she was just a soldier; and so modest about it--well, you couldn't help admiring her, and you couldn't help imitating her; not even a King Charles spaniel could remain entirely despicable in her society. So, as you see, there was more to her than her education. CHAPTER II When I was well grown, at last, I was sold and taken away, and I never saw her again. She was broken-hearted, and so was I, and we cried; but she comforted me as well as she could, and said we were sent into this world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without repining, take our life as we might find it, live it for the best good of others, and never mind about the results; they were not our affair. She said men who did like this would have a noble and beautiful reward by and by in another world, and although we animals would not go there, to do well and right without reward would give to our brief lives a worthiness and dignity which in itself would be a reward. She had gathered these things from time to time when she had gone to the Sunday-school with the children, and had laid them up in her memory more carefully than she had done with those other words and phrases; and she had studied them deeply, for her good and ours. One may see by this that she had a wise and thoughtful head, for all there was so much lightness and vanity in it. So we said our farewells, and looked our last upon each other through our tears; and the last thing she said--keeping it for the last to make me remember it the better, I think--was, "In memory of me, when there is a time of danger t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   >>  



Top keywords:

things

 

reward

 

couldn

 

memory

 

danger

 

children

 

taught

 

beautiful

 

purpose

 

affair


results

 

repining

 

duties

 

dignity

 

lightness

 

vanity

 

thoughtful

 

farewells

 
looked
 

keeping


remember

 
deeply
 

studied

 

worthiness

 

comforted

 

animals

 

carefully

 

phrases

 

school

 
gathered

Sunday
 

spaniel

 

forgot

 

kindly

 
easily
 
resentments
 
injuries
 

learned

 
threatened
 

friend


prompt

 

ashamed

 

harbored

 

suspecting

 

frivolous

 

character

 

gentle

 

virtues

 

stranger

 

society