e. He looked
around. There was nobody in the room.

"Something _must_ be done!" This time he saw in the corner of the room,
barely visible in the shadow, his father's cane. The voice seemed to come
from that corner.

"Something MUST be done!" Yes, it was the cane. He could see its head,
and the face on one side was toward him. How bright its eyes were! It
did not occur to Willie just then that there was anything surprising in
the fact that the walking-stick had all at once become a talking stick.

"Something MUST be done!" said the cane, lifting its one foot up and
bringing it down with emphasis at the word must. Willie felt pleased that
the little old man--I mean the walking-stick--should come to his help.

"I tell you what," said Old Ebony, hopping out of his shady corner; "I
tell you what," it said, and then stopped as if to reflect; then finished
by saying, "It's a shame!"

Willie was about to ask the cane to what he referred, but he thought best
to wait till Old Ebony got ready to tell of his own accord. But the
walking-stick did not think best to answer immediately, but took entirely
a new and surprising track. It actually went to quoting Scripture!

"My eyes are dim," said the cane, "and I never had much learning; canes
weren't sent to school when I was young. Won't you read the thirty-fifth
verse of the twentieth chapter of Acts."

Willie turned to the stand and saw the Bible open at that verse. He did
not feel surprised. It seemed natural enough to him. He read the verse,
not aloud, but to himself, for Old Ebony seemed to hear his thoughts. He
read:

"Ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord
Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."

"Now," said the walking-stick, stepping or hopping up toward the lounge
and leaning thoughtfully over the head of it, "Now, I say that it is a
shame that when the birthday of that Lord Jesus, who said it is more
blessed to give than to receive, comes round, all of you Sunday-school
scholars are thinking only of what you are going to get."

Willie was about to say that they gave as well as received on Christmas,
and that his class had already raised the money to buy a Bible Dictionary
for their teacher. But Old Ebony seemed to guess his thought, and he only
said, "And that's another shame!"

Willie couldn't see how this could be, and he thought the walking-stick
was using very strong language indeed. I think myself the ca