by Unknown
"There can't be!" I exclaimed. "What is it?"
"I think you spelled friend wrong."
Horrified, I looked at the word. Sure enough, I had written "A FREND LOVETH AT . . . "
"Oh, no! What can I do to fix it up?"
"You'll have to take it out, back to there," Sarah Jane said. "There isn't room to squeeze in an i without looking funny."
"But I don't have time to take it all out," I cried. "Besides it will leave holes where I sewed it, and that will look worse!"
Sarah Jane was sorry, and so was I. It was either take the stitching all out, and probably not finish in time, or leave it in and hope the judges wouldn't notice, but I knew I wouldn't win.
Ma was sympathetic. "I think you should put an i in here, even though it looks crowded. That would be better than having the judges believe you thought it was spelled correctly. As many times as you've looked at that sampler, I can't understand how you missed it."
"That's what Sarah Jane said too," I replied sadly. "When I looked at it, I just thought how pretty it was. I wasn't expecting anything to be wrong. I did so want to win that book! I was sure the Lord would answer my prayers."
"Maybe you should have prayed to do your best rather than to win, Mabel. The Lord is willing to help us, but we need to do all we can with the intelligence He gave us." '
I knew Ma was right, but I was pretty sad the day I took the sampler to school. The teacher agreed that if it hadn't been for that mistake, it might have been a winner.
The last day of school was exciting, anyway. When the contest winners were announced, Roy was in first place in the wood-carving division with a small squirrel he had whittled.
"You can be the first one to read my book, Mabel," he offered generously. "Maybe next year you can enter again and win your own prize."
"That was a good lesson for me," Grandma said. "I was often careless after that, but I was careful not to be quite so positive about what I would do again. And I never blamed the Lord for my mistakes, either!"
Mrs. Carter's Fright
Grandma, you never told me you dressed a pig in baby's clothes! What did you do that for?" I asked wondering why my commonsense grandma would do such a thing, even when she was a little girl like me.
"Oh, my friend Sarah Jane and I should have been whipped for that prank! We frightened poor Mrs. Carter nearly out of her senses. If she hadn't been such a kind, forgiving lady, I'm sure we would have been punished severely."
"Tell me what happened, Grandma," I begged.
"After I get the bread in the oven, we'll sit on the porch. You can help me pick over the beans for supper."
Soon we were seated on the porch, and Grandma began.
This story happened right on this porch. At least, most of it did. It was a beautiful day in the spring, shortly after hoof was over for the year. Sarah Jane and I were wandering about, trying to think of the best way to spend the day. We had about decided on a trip to the woods to look for berries when Ma changed our minds.
' "Don't go too far from the house, girls," she called. "Mrs. Carter is coming to spend the day sewing, and she's bringing her new baby. I know you'll want to see her."
Of course we did. There weren't a lot of new babies in our community, and Sarah Jane and I both loved them. We even thought Mrs. Carter might let us play with little Lucy. So we hung around the gate and watched the road for the first sight of the Carters' wagon.
Very soon it appeared, and we watched Mr. Carter drive up to the front porch. After helping Mrs. Carter down from the front seat, he went to the back of the wagon and took out a beautiful baby buggy. Sarah Jane and I had never seen one so fine before.
"Oh, Mrs. Carter," I said, "may we push Lucy around in the buggy?"
"We'll be very, very careful," Sarah Jane chimed in.
Mrs. Carter smiled at us. "I don't know why not. Just don't go too far from the house. She should go to sleep soon; then you can put the buggy here in the shade, close to the porch."
She laid the baby down, and after admiring her for a few minutes, we began to push the buggy slowly around the yard.
"Wouldn't it be fun to have a real baby to take care of?" I said.
"Oh, yes!" Sarah Jane replied. "Our dolls are nice, but they don't move around and cry like a baby does."
After what seemed like a very short time, the baby went to sleep. We took a few more turns around the house and even shook the buggy a little to see if she might wake up. Finally we decided to put the buggy in the shade as Mrs. Carter had told us to. Then we sat on the edge of the porch and admired the pretty dress and bonnet the baby wore.
"She looks just like a little doll, doesn't she?" Sarah Jane said. "Your doll, Emily, is just about that size. Shall we get our dolls and play with them?"
I agreed, and we brought our dolls and doll clothes back out to the porch where we could watch the baby as she slept. After a few minutes, Sarah Jane tired of the dolls.
"I'd rather dress something that moves a little," she said, and then spotting the cat walking across the yard, she suggested, "Maybe we could dress the cat."
"You might be able to put clothes on your cat," I said, "but you'll never get a dress and bonnet on this one. He's awfully particular about what he does."
"I suppose Pep wouldn't like it either," Sarah Jane said, figuring our dog was the next best choice.
"I'm sure of it," I replied. "Besides, his head is too big to fit this bonnet."
We sat for a few moments longer, swinging our feet bacl and forth, when suddenly a brilliant thought came to me.
"I know! How about one of the new baby pigs in the barn? All they do is sleep, but at least they're alive. Shall we get one?"
"Oh, yes, let's!" Sarah Jane exclaimed. "That would be just right for the doll clothes."
So we hurried out to the barn to pick out the cleanest pinkest piglet we could find. Sure enough, when we had put the dress on that pig and tied the bonnet under its chin, we had what we thought was the next best thing to a real baby.
"Isn't that cute?" Sarah Jane said. "We should have thought of this before." She eyed the buggy, which little Lucy was sleeping in. "I think we should take our baby for a ride."
"We can't put the pig in with Mrs. Carter's baby!" I protested. "She wouldn't like that. Besides, Lucy's still asleep. We might wake her up."
Sarah Jane thought that over. "Why don't you put the baby on your bed to sleep while we take the pig for a ride? Mrs. Carter wouldn't care if you did that."
"Okay, she'll be comfortable there." I lifted the baby carefully from the buggy, and with Sarah Jane opening the loors fog me, I tiptoed quietly up to my room and put Lucy down on my bed.
"You'd better put her right in the middle so she won't roll off," Sarah Jane suggested.
"She's not big enough to roll over," I said, but I put her as lose to the center of the bed as I could and covered her with a blanket. Then we tiptoed out and closed the door.
"There," Sarah Jane said. "She'll probably sleep all morning. Let's take the pig for a ride."
So we ran back outside, put the pig in the buggy, and covered it with a doll blanket. It promptly fell asleep, and we had a great time pretending to be fine ladies strolling through town with their beautiful baby.
Very shortly Ma came to the kitchen door. "Girls, it would be nice if you would run to the woods and gather some berries for dinner. It won't be long until it's time to eat. Is the baby still asleep?"
"Yes, Ma." I replied. "She's asleep."
"Good. Be sure to leave the buggy in the shade. This small bucket should hold enough berries," she said as she handed us a container.
There was nothing for us to do but take the bucket and start for the woods.
"We'd better hurry," I said, realizing what might happen if we were gone too long.
We picked the berries as fast as we could, not even stopping to eat a few now and then as we always did. Still it seemed as though the bucket would never fill up. At last we had enough and started back t
o the house.
As soon as we reached the clearing and could see the house, we knew we were in trouble.
"Oh, no!" Sarah Jane cried as we surveyed the scene before us.
Everyone seemed to be in motion. Roy was galloping toward the woods where we stood. Reuben was racing for the barn, carrying something that looked like a small pig in doll clothes, and Pep was running between the two of them, not sure whom to follow. The only still figures were Mrs. Carter, who was lying on the porch steps, and Ma, who was kneeling beside her, wiping her friend's face with a cloth.
"I think they've found the pig," Sarah Jane observed.
I nodded.
"We'd better get moving," Sarah Jane said. "We're in for it sooner or later!"
By this time, Roy had reached us, and he breathlessly reported the news. "Someone stole Mrs. Carter's baby and left a pig in the buggy. You're going to get it, because it's wearing your doll clothes."
"I told you Lucy would sleep for hours," Sarah Jane declared impatiently. "She didn't even cry to let them know where she was. How did we know they'd look for her before she woke up?"
I was sure that argument wasn't going to impress Ma, because I had used similar logic on her before without success. But the sooner they found out where the baby was, the better off we would be.
Once everyone stopped long enough to listen, Sarah Jane and I explained everything, and Mrs. Carter was reunited with her baby. When she saw that Lucy was safe, she told Ma not to punish us.
"They just didn't think. I know they didn't mean to be bad."
"They'd better learn to think," Ma replied crossly.
"Do you suppose you can ring the dinner bell without doing something foolish?" she said to me.
Soon Pa came in from the field and washed for dinner. Sarah Jane and I sat as quietly as we could, hoping that no one would pay any attention to us and praying that the boys wouldn't tell Pa what had happened. '
Unfortunately they didn't need to. Pa sat down, asked the blessing, and looked around the table. "Would someone tell me what the fool pig is doing down in the pen with doll rags on? The sow won't even let it come near her." Pa waited for someone to reply.
Sarah Jane and I avoided his glance, Roy sputtered into his glass, and Reuben looked disgusted. Then, to our surprise, Ma and Mrs. Carter began to laugh!
Pa laughed too when he heard the story, making Sarah Jane and I feel better.
Grandma picked up the pan of beans and went to check on her bread. I sat on the steps and looked out over the front yard. I could almost see the buggy and that funny pig!
When Grandma Needed Prayer
Grandma," I said, "I've lost the book that is due at the library tomorrow. Have you seen it?"
"No, I haven't. Did you look all over your room?"
"I've looked everywhere!" I said. "It just isn't here. I'll I iave to pay for it if I don't find it, and I haven't any money. What shall I do?"
"We could pray about it," Grandma said. "We'll ask the Lord to help us find it."
"I didn't know the Lord cared about library books. I thought we were just supposed to ask for big stuff."
"Nothing is too small for God to care about when it involves one of His children," Grandma replied.
We prayed about the lost book, -and I went to get ready for bed. When I turned back the covers, my book was under lie pillow!
"Look, Grandma," I called. "Here it is! That was a quick answer to prayer, wasn't it?"
Grandma came to my door and nodded her head. "I'n not surprised. The Lord says 'Before you call, I will answer. He knows just what we need all the time."
"We didn't really have to pray then. The book was here anyway, and the Lord knew I needed it."
"Get into bed," Grandma said, "and I'll tell you why we should always pray, even though God knows our needs."
When I was a little girl, we always had family prayer in our home, and Pa expected each of us to pray. We were brought up to believe that God always hears and answers when His children call.
But I was often a very stubborn child. There were times when I didn't want to do what I knew was right. The morning that I remember was one of those times. Pa had promised that the whole family could go with him to a cattle auction in the next county.
' "There is a homemaking exhibit for the ladies, I hear," Pa said to Ma. "You will enjoy that."
"Even me?" I asked excitedly. "I can go too, Pa?"
"Pa said it was for ladies!" Roy put in. "That sure wouldn't include you."
I started to protest, but Ma interrupted. "Now, Roy, don't start something you'll be sorry for. Of course that includes you, Mabel. Have we ever left you at home?"
I was excited, and I could hardly wait for the day to come. It finally did, and we were up before daybreak to have breakfast and get started. I was in such a hurry to leave that I didn't want to finish the meal.
"You'll wish you had before you see dinnertime," Ma w;irned. "You'd better eat."
Ma didn't know how true that would be.
After breakfast, Pa reached for the Bible.
"Oh, Pa!" I protested. "We aren't going to take time for prayer this morning, are we? Couldn't we do it when we get home tonight? It's a long way to the exhibition grounds!"
Pa looked at me with surprise. "God always comes first in this house, you know that, Mabel. We want to start our day by talking to Him."
"Well, I don't," I replied crossly.
It's a wonder Ma didn't spank me right then. But she didn't. She just looked at me quietly. "All right, Mabel, you won't need to pray this morning."
Somehow the day didn't seem quite as exciting to me now. I knew I had been horrid and should have been punished.
We got into the buggy and started out. I sat very quietly while the boys chattered about what they would see and do. As the sun came up, and we neared the grounds, my spirits rose, and I began to think of the fun I would have. "The first thing I want to do is find Sarah Jane. We want to look at everything that is here."
"You won't have far to look," Ma replied. "I see her standing by the buggies, waiting for you."
Sarah Jane was hopping from one foot to the other with excitement. "Hurry, Mabel," she called. "I've been waiting and waiting for you. What took you so long?"
I started to say something about having prayer before we left, but then thought better of it. "We're here now," I said. "Let's go."
We ran off toward the big tent that held the homemaking exhibit, and our mothers followed close behind.
"Oh!" Sarah Jane exclaimed, "we'll never see all this! I didn't know there were that many quilts in the whole world! Have you ever seen so many things?"
"No," Ma laughed. "I guess I haven't. And look at all the baked goods and canned food! We'd better get started, or we'll miss something."
For a long time Sarah Jane and I trailed along after our, mothers, looking at the displays and pointing out what we liked best. Shortly before noon, the ladies sat down to rest.
"Don't you girls wander off too far," Ma said to us. "We'll be eating in just a little while."
"May we go outside and look around, Ma?" I asked.
"I guess that would be all right. But don't get out of sight of the tents, will you?"
"Oh, no," we promised. "We'll stay right close by."
And we fully intended to do that. There were a number tents with different displays in them, and we were going look at those and come right back. A large woods lay at
the end of the exhibit grounds, and as we approached the edge of it, Sarah Jane stopped and grabbed my hand.
"Look, Mabel. Do you see that?" She pointed toward the high trees.
"What is it? Did one of the calves get away from the animal tent already?"
Sarah Jane shook her head. "I don't think so. It looks like a fawn to me. Let's go see."
Quietly we tiptoed to the end of the clearing and Approached the tree. It was a fawn, and it was watching us.
"He doesn't seem to be afraid," I said. "He's not running a
way.
Slowly we walked toward the little animal, hoping that we could pet it. As we came closer, he turned and started into the woods. If he had run, we would have given up and gone back. But he walked slowly and let us keep him in sight.
"Isn't he pretty?" Sarah Jane exclaimed. "I wish he'd stop . And let us get closer. If we hurry any faster, I'm afraid we'll scare him."
So without thinking that we were in a strange woods, we followed the fawn for a long time. Finally he disappeared from view, and we turned to go back to the exhibit grounds.
"We've come a long way, Sarah Jane. I can't see the edge of the woods from here. What if we go in the wrong direction?"
"You can't go in the wrong direction if you just turn around from the way you've been going," she said. And to prove it, she turned around and started back. I followed, assured that she knew how to get to the exhibit ground.
Even though the sun was overhead by now, it was cool and shady in the woods. We walked on for what seemed like a long time; then Sarah Jane stopped.
"We don't seem to be going anyplace," she said. "I don't think we walked this far."
"You mean you don't know the way back? You acted like you did. How come we've gone the wrong way if all we had to do was turn around?"
"I guess we didn't turn around far enough," Sarah Jane admitted. "We'd better stop and think about it a minute."
We stopped and sat down on a log. The woods didn't seem as friendly anymore, and I began to feel anxious. Sarah Jane looked around thoughtfully. "My brother says that moss always grows on the north side of trees."
"What has that got to do with anything?" I asked crossly.
"We don't even know what direction we came from. We could stand in the woods with our noses pointed north all lay and never get out."
"You don't have to be cross," Sarah Jane said. "I was trying to think of something to help us. What do you think we should do?"
"I'm sorry," I said, "but I'm getting sort of worried. Besides, I'm awfully hungry. It must be way past dinnertime hy now. Do you suppose they'll go ahead and eat without us?"
"Probably," Sarah Jane replied glumly. "They won't know we went away from the grounds. We were sure dumb to follow that fawn."
