et little voice, "Grandma,
shall I read the Bible to you?"[A]

[Footnote A: A fact.]

"Oh, the precious child!" Truly, "of such is the kingdom of heaven."

Her grandmother's eyes filled with happy tears as she said, "Yes,
darling;" and ilken Annie, getting her own pretty Bible, read about good
little Samuel to her grandmother.

Then she got into her lap, and sang her ever so many little songs; and
let me tell you, that anybody would have wished to be a grandmother
right away, if they could have had such a delightful time as Annie's
grandmother did. I'm sure I do.

And when the dear mamma came home, and heard all that her sweet little
child had done, she took her in her arms and fondly kissed her, and
prayed God in her heart that He would make her "ilken" Annie always as
good and lovely as she was then. I am almost certain she will be; for a
good child will be sure to become a good woman or man. So take care,
little darlings, to be better than ever you were before; and above all,
_obedient_ to your parents.

Not long after this, a great event happened at Annie's house. You must
know that she had no less than five loving brothers; all older than
herself. Quite a lot of them, isn't there? And their mother let them
have all manner of innocent fun and frolic; because she was one of the
very best mothers in the world, and knew that children ought to be made
not only as _good_, but as _happy as possible_. So, lo and behold!
everybody and his wife, and I too, were invited to a splendid concert
at Annie's house.

The best of it was, that the concert was to be just like Christy's
minstrels; and the boys, and some of their friends who were to help, had
bought the most splendid black woolly wigs; and were going to have their
faces made very nearly as black as ink. I tell you what it is! I was
just as full of the fun of it as I could hold; and I went directly to a
jeweller I knew, and got him to lend me several breastpins, with such
big make-believe diamonds in them, that they almost put your eyes out
shining. These the boys wore in their ruffled shirts; and they were
_such_ dandies! oh my, what dandies they were!

You must know, at a _real_ concert, the people throw beautiful flowers
to the singers that please them most. Annie and I got up an immense
bouquet, about the size of a peck measure, without telling anybody a
word about it; and saved it up, to throw _at_ one of the "colored
gemmen."

The evening came, and was w