nds, pouring in oil and wine,
and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care
of him.

"'And on the morrow when he departed, he took, out two pence, and gave
them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever
thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.

"'Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that
fell among thieves?

"'And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him,
Go, and do thou likewise.'

"What do you think that story means?" asked mamma.

{281}

"I think," said Harold, "that it means that to be neighbor to anybody
is to help him."

Margaret thought a minute. "It seems to me," she said, "that neighbors
can live a long way off, then. Our teacher said she would tell us next
Sunday how we could help poor little children in a big city five
hundred miles away. That will make us neighbors to them, won't it,
mamma?"

"Why, yes," said mamma. "So it will." Then she smiled a little and
said, "I think we have some neighbors living in China and some others
living in India."

What do you suppose mamma meant?

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THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Harold and Margaret were looking at a picture of an Eastern shepherd
with his flocks.

"Mamma," said Harold, "is this our country? This man is not dressed as
men are here."

"No," said mamma, "it is a picture of a shepherd and his sheep in the
country of the Bible."

"What makes the shepherd go before the sheep, mamma?" asked Harold.

"In that country," said mamma, "the sheep are not driven, but led."

"Were sheep more plenty in the Bible land than in ours? I have never
seen many sheep," said Harold.

"Yes," answered mamma, "most of the children in the Bible land knew all
about sheep. Many of the hillsides had little white flocks of sheep on
them. They were not kept in fields with fences. They wandered about over
the open pasture lands; and so a man or a boy must be with them to watch
over them. He was called the shepherd. He took them to the best
pastures. At some seasons of the year he had to lead them a long way to
find water. He kept the bears and the wolves and the lions away. He kept
away the thieves who might come to steal the sheep. At night he drove
the sheep to a fold, or shed, or sometimes he slept with them all night
in the open air, beneath the stars.

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[Illustration]
AN EASTERN SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP

From a photograph taken by W. J. Ai