. SOCIETY 
 
 rfc .fycxfi/ 
 
 ' 
 
 -" - 
 
 CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIJN HHIRCH. 
 
 SAN FKANCISCO. 
 
 I 
 
 *, 1. EVERY Scholar that can read, and whose 
 i behaviour in the Sabbath School is good, shall 
 , be entitled to draw books from the Library. 
 r No Scholar shall have more than one book at 
 r the same time. * 
 
 i 
 
 U.-h' 1 TI ' ( ', 1)ool r s i! rct<)lH ' llS( ' ll "- ilh -'-fat care, and any 
 1 S i i Y ."' ril! "- aril .v S1)il "'i'lrc a book, 
 , j;!mll be deprived ,l ttc privilege ,.f drawing iinotl,,..' 
 
 J IroT.." ' """' as th teacher 'nay t"'k 
 
 k 
 
 ; : Ho..k< must be rctuniwl to the teacher every 
 Suhbath : and. on no account can a book be retained 
 | from the Library more than one week. 
 
 4. Scholar* who come in Intr. and after the select- 
 on ot books ha- hern made by oll.cr Scholars, shall 
 "t d.-i.nv,,i ,,i the privilege of drawing* book on .1 
 
 day, uiilos they are able to rive their teacher a -atis. 
 factory reasonfor be in- tardy. 
 
 5. All books taken bv tl- Scholars sha! 
 o their teach. !>. ,n ..spon-i. 
 
 '""' "turn of thai*., .,, th.-ir , 4 u i,,
 
 7< 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 .JIMMY IMI.N. p. 7.
 
 JIMMY DON; 
 
 OR, 
 
 JtfDY AND HER BABY, 
 
 MRS. F. B. SMITH. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 WARREN AND BLAKESLEE, 
 164 TRKMOXT STREET BOSTON.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1869, by 
 
 \VARREN AND BLAKESLEK, 
 
 In the Clerk's OK;ce of the District Court of the District of 
 
 Massachusetts.
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSE-KEEPING, . s 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 JUDY'S GREEN-HOUSE .24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 JUDY'S MOTHER 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DINNER WITH JUDY, 44 
 
 CHAPTTR V. 
 JUDY'S FIRST LESSONS 53 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 BLIND BETTY, 66 
 
 LIBRARY
 
 4 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 OVER THE OCEAN 76 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 JUDY'S NEW HOME, .../... 94 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT, . . . .104 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 BLIND BETTY'S BLESSING, 113 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 JUDY A WOMAN, 124
 
 JIMMY DON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 
 
 T SAW a little girl walking in the 
 *- street the other day, and drawing 
 her doll in a tiny carriage. 
 
 She was fair-faced, and blue-eyed, and 
 golden-haired. She was dressed in a 
 blue coat* with swan's down for trimming, 
 and a jaunty little white hat was perched 
 above her curls. The doll was of wax, 
 large and life-like, and had just such 
 wrappings as a real baby would wear ; 
 a little white merino cloak, and a lace
 
 6 JIMMY DON. 
 
 hood, and a beautiful bright afghan, tuck- 
 ing it warmly into the pretty carriage. 
 
 Judy and her baby were not like this. 
 I must tell you all about them, you 
 little girls that have fine clothes, and a 
 great many toys to amuse you ; I must 
 tell you about my Judy and her seemingly 
 meager life, lest you should wonder a*t 
 God, and dare to think him partial in his 
 love and favor towards the children who 
 call him "Father." 
 
 I know you will laugh at the picture 
 of my pets ; but I look at it with tears 
 in my eyes ; though with a certain joy in 
 my heart, which the poor teach me to 
 feel oftener than the rich. 
 
 There she stands, as I first saw her in 
 the summer time, a little wee figure of four
 
 JUDY'S HOME AtfD HOUSEKEEPING. 1 
 
 years' stunted growth, by the door of a 
 shanty in the city suburbs. Her scant 
 calico frock reaches just below her knees. 
 Her little legs and feet are brown and 
 bare. There is no covering upon neck 
 or arms, and the only protection to her 
 head is a mass of brown hair that makes 
 a sort of crown, so short and thick is it. 
 You would scarcely turn out of your way 
 to look at this little creature if she were 
 really to be near you in your daily walks, 
 would you ? 
 
 Perhaps I should not have done so, but 
 for the loving notes that greeted my ear, 
 
 and for the strange thing in the child's 
 
 
 arms. 
 
 " Baby mustn't cwy," she said, hugging 
 the object of her love closer to her breast, 
 " Mover (mother) will carry her little one
 
 8 JIMMY DON. 
 
 with her wherever she goes, nobody shall 
 touch mover's Jimmy Don to hurt it, so 
 don't cry any more." 
 
 There was something so tender in the 
 child's voice, as if her very heart was in 
 the words of soothing that she spoke, that 
 I could not help going toward her and say- 
 ing, " Let me see your dolly." 
 
 She held it out with a sort of pride, 
 but drew it back as if hurt, when I smiled. 
 
 It was a small demijohn, with the cork 
 marked with eyes, nose and mouth, and 
 around the neck was pinned a bit of 
 calico folded like a shawl. This was 
 Judy's baby ; the little darling that made 
 her soul joyful all the day, and stirred her 
 lips to sing and coo and speak sweet, 
 gentle words of caressing. It was wrong 
 in me to laugh. It was as if I had made
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 9 
 
 light of some distorted child, whose 
 mother forgets all but that God has given 
 it to her for a comfort and blessing. I was 
 sorry in a minute, and hastened to make 
 peace with the little wounded matron. 
 
 " I will make a bonnet of white and 
 pink worsted for your baby," I said, " and 
 a little pink frock ; would you like that ? " 
 
 " But it's a boy, ma'am, and must have a 
 hat, my Jimmy Don," she answered, her 
 eyes beaming with joy. 
 
 "Well a hat it shall be then, with a 
 feather in it," I said, " but the frock will 
 be all right, for boy-babies and girl-babies 
 alike wear long dresses." 
 
 The child drew very near to me, and 
 laid her brown cheek upon my hand. ' " I 
 love you," she exclaimed, with a trust 
 that was sweet to receive. One has only
 
 10 JIMMY DON. 
 
 need to give some attention to a baby, in 
 order to win the mother. 
 
 " I must show you where Jimmy Don 
 and I play," added the little girl, after a 
 moment's silence. 
 
 It is a whim of mine to get away from 
 the city's thoroughfare, where only the 
 surface of life is seen, and to go out where 
 the poor live, and where one can learn the 
 secrets of heart and home, as revealed 
 through the little children who have not 
 yet come to outside burtlens and cares, 
 but wno repeat, in their mimic way, the 
 scenes that are enacted beneath the family 
 roof. 
 
 Not far from the heart of the city where 
 I live, just at the end of a horse-car route, 
 there is plenty of space for such lessons 
 as I love to learn by observation.
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 11 
 
 There are , no compact rows of brick and 
 stone houses, but here and there, few 
 and far between, a large mansion with 
 beautiful grounds, and now and then, a 
 little way removed, a poor hut that is left 
 by sufferance, until the owner of the land 
 shajl see that the market is ripe for a 
 good sale, when he will sweep away the 
 shanty as he would stubble from the 
 earth. 
 
 Such a shanty was Judy's home, built 
 flat upon the green sward, without a cellar, 
 and with no attempt at any thing' but a 
 simple shelter from the summer's heat 
 and rains, and from the winter's frost and 
 snow. 
 
 As she stood there beside the door, 
 with her queer baby in her arms, and the 
 shower of dandelions upon the grass, she
 
 12 JIMMY DON. 
 
 felt richer than the great lawyer who 
 paced the gallery of the grand house a 
 stone's throw off, knitting his brow be- 
 cause, out of his two millions of money, 
 he had lost a paltry thousand by some 
 unsuccessful speculation. 
 
 When she had taken my hand and gone 
 a few steps, she dropped it suddenly, and 
 stopped to pick me a little bouquet from 
 her unfenced garden. 
 
 It was such a pretty hospitality ! I 
 could see a dear, gentle heart in the act. 
 A flower gracefully given, it costs but 
 a trifle ; . and yet it is worth so much ! 
 
 Judy was as happy as could be, because 
 I was pleased with the gift, and pinned 
 it upon my breast. I would not have 
 wounded her sweet faith and trust by 
 throwing it carelessly away, for anything.
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 13 
 
 My own little heart was too much hurt, 
 one day .in my childhood, by a good, but 
 thoughtless minister. I regarded him with 
 the utmost reverence, his office seemed 
 to me to lift him so far above other men, 
 and his work of looking after dying souls 
 was so holy. He had come on a visit to 
 my grandmother, and I ran with delight 
 to pluck for him two last rare buds from 
 
 a monthly rose-bush. He took them with- 
 
 . 
 out a word of thanks, and a few mfnutes 
 
 after, I found them lying upon the shelf 
 to wither forgotte'n, but I remembered, 
 and was wounded. Children receive such 
 lasting impressions ! We who ha\ge grown 
 old must be governed by that thought, 
 in all our dealings with them. Our Lord 
 Jesus knew the worth of this precept,
 
 14 JIMMY DON. 
 
 "Take heed that ye offend not one of 
 these little ones." 
 
 " How much gold, what a handful, you 
 have given me ! " I said to Judy, as the 
 bright flowers showed conspicuously upon 
 1 my black shawl. , 
 
 She laughed a soft, silvery laugh, and 
 looked straight into my eyes with hers, so 
 blue and sunny. " God gives me ever 
 
 and ever and ever so much ; see ! " she 
 
 jflHL 
 said, waving her little palm out toward 
 
 the thickly covered sward, " Jimmy and 
 I buy rings with vis money ; vey take it at 
 our store." 
 
 I did not quite understand her just 
 then ; but she made it all plain to me 
 afterward. 
 
 She trudged on by my side, holding
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 15 
 
 my finger, and guiding me as we went 
 away from the small, but past the big 
 mansion, to a vacant lot, in which a cellar 
 for a house had been dug and for some 
 
 * 
 
 reason deserted after the foundation had 
 begun to be laid. 
 
 There were steps leading down, and 
 when we had descended we were quite 
 secure from observation, as it was back 
 
 from the^street, in the middle of the lot, 
 
 IH^_ 
 and very deep. It must have been left 
 
 desolate for a year or more, as some rub- 
 bish from the premises near had accumu- 
 lated in one corner, and grass was growing 
 in certain spots, and an ailanthus had 
 shot up two feet high out of the pile of 
 refuse dirt, and stood floating like a flag 
 of triumph above the ramparts. Judy
 
 16 JIMMY DON. 
 
 pointed to it with rapture. " My little 
 tee ! " she said ; " I lay Jimmy Don under 
 it to west sometimes, when the sun is 
 hot." 
 
 The little girl had contrived to move 
 some heavy stones, and form a circle with 
 a stone in the center for a seat, and here 
 she had her mimic home. 
 
 
 
 It was a strange admixture of the poor 
 
 place that was perfectly familiar to her, 
 
 - 
 and of the great house, into whicteshe had 
 
 an occasional peep when her mother was 
 called upon to do any work in the law- 
 yer's mansion. 
 
 It showed me how the little mind and 
 heart were reaching out for things higher 
 and better, and more beautiful than the 
 cramped, gloomy hovel could give, and
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 17 
 
 how surely as the child grew in years, 
 would these yearnings lead her to strug- 
 gle for the greatest possible good. 
 
 " Vis is my kitchen," she said, showing 
 me a nook that she had hemmed in with 
 rough pieces of board. " Jimmy and I eat 
 on vis table, and I wash his cloves in vis 
 tub, and here, in vis box I keep my coal 
 and kindling, and here is my cupboard 
 wiv my dishes in it." 
 
 She had gathered in some pieces of 
 coal and chips, and had little bits of blue 
 and white pottery set up in her pantry. 
 Outside the circle were two sticks stuck 
 in the ground, with a line drawn across, 
 and a blue rag fluttering, "Jimmy's 
 shirt drying," Judy informed me. 
 
 " I make bone soup, twice a week," said 
 the little housewife, "vey sell me ve 
 a
 
 18 JIMMY DON. 
 
 bones cheap at market, and I boil em up 
 in vis iron pot. I'm going now to buy 
 some bones, will you go wiv me ? I have 
 to take Jimmy Don, cos I'm afraid he'll 
 cwy if I leave him alone." 
 
 The little creature was so earnest in 
 her housekeeping, and seemed to regard 
 me so really as a guest and not as a 
 stranger, that it amused and interested 
 me to enter into all her 
 
 . 
 "I must get ve money firstjWshe said, 
 
 running up the steps with her baby on 
 her bosom, and coming back in a minute 
 with "two bits of yellow gold" as she 
 called the dandelions. 
 
 " I'll sit here on this perch and watch 
 you while you play," said I, choosing a 
 short board seat that rested upon two 
 stones.
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 19 
 
 " Oh, vats my sofa, like Squire Bow- 
 en's ! " she exclaimed. " Vis is my parlor 
 wiv ve best . fings in it. My sofa's gween 
 velvet, and don't you see ve pitty cushion, 
 all wed, and yellow, and blue, wiv a little 
 bird, and flowers all over it ! " 
 
 Of course I pretended, though it re- 
 quired the child's vivid imagination to 
 make any thing very soft or beautiful out 
 of the rough things around me. 
 
 She was not contented, however, to let 
 me rest, and watch her play ; children 
 want us to enter with a zest into what 
 concerns them. A spectator to their 
 sports is not to their taste ; we must 
 become, like them, little earnest actors. 
 
 So I went to market with Judy and 
 the baby, and we paid the golden coins 
 for our bones, and brought them home in
 
 20 JIMMY DON. 
 
 a big basket, with a few carrots and pota- 
 toes and onions surrounding, and a small 
 red pepper, and a bunch of sweet herbs 
 on top. Judy did the purchasing, and 
 knew all the ingredients as well as any 
 old experienced cook. " I've got salt, at 
 home," she said, "and flour for ve 
 thick'ning, and we'll toast some bread to 
 put in ve tureen, when we pour out the 
 soup. I can't stop to make dumplins vis 
 mornin', cos Jimmy Don's cross. I guess 
 his little stomach aches. I must give 
 him some catnip tea. Vat's what mover 
 used to give my little brover. He's my 
 little brover still ; but he doesn't live any 
 more at my house. He's gone, mover 
 says, to be wiv God and ve angels. 
 
 Wouldn't you like to go vere ? Miss 
 
 what's your name ? "
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 21 
 
 The strange child had stopped stirring 
 the soup with her large wooden spoon, and 
 had come up to me, and laid her hand 
 upon my knee, while her pretty blue eyes 
 searched my face. This was the first 
 moment that she had seemed to care to 
 know who I was. She had taken me upon 
 trust altogether, and had confided to me 
 that she was little Judy Turner, and that 
 the hut among the dandelions was where 
 she slept at night with " mover," but that 
 all day long she and Jimmy kept house 
 together in their own home, in the old 
 cellar, and had such good times ! 
 
 She said, " Miss Karlen, Miss Karlen," 
 over and over again, to fix my name in her 
 little mind, and then repeated her ques- 
 tion, " Wouldn't you like to go up vere to 
 be wiv God and ve angels, and my baby
 
 22 JIMMY DON. 
 
 brover ? Ve dark never comes vere, and 
 tis a great deal brighter and pittier van it 
 is over to squire Bowen's ? " 
 
 The child seemed satisfied when I an- 
 swered, " I'm trying to get to that beauti- 
 ful place, dear little Judy. I do wish very 
 miich to go there, though I do not mind 
 the dark here, for God is with us in the 
 night as well as in the day, and will make 
 it all bright and happy if we think of 
 him." 
 
 She went back to her soup making, and 
 when it was finished, ladled out a dish for 
 me, and helped herself, and fed Jimmy 
 with a teaspoon, and afterward washed 
 the dishes, and put them away in the cup- 
 board, and swept the kitchen floor, and 
 made herself tidy for the afternoon. 
 Such scrubbing of face and hands, and
 
 JUDY'S HOME AND HOUSEKEEPING. 23 
 
 brushing of the brown hair ! " Vis frock 
 must do for to-day," she said, smoothing 
 down the breadths with her hands. " I'll 
 put on my white apron, and sit down wiv 
 my sewin' ; I've a dress to make for Jim- 
 my, poor little fellow ! He'll be wagged if 
 I dont hurry about it." 
 
 I could tell that her mother was a neat, 
 careful woman just as well as if I had seen 
 her, and was thoroughly acquainted with 
 her daily routine and habits ; and I felt 
 that so far as the child's training was con- 
 cerned, the woman had done her very best, 
 amid her poverty, to lift the little creature 
 up and keep her out of the mire. It gave 
 me a strong desire to go to her, and help 
 her, in her effort to make of Judy's social 
 position something better than she had 
 herself been able to attain.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 JUDY'S GREENHOUSE. 
 
 THE little girl forgot her kitchen and 
 her housework now, and began to 
 play the lady. " Wouldn't you like to see 
 my flowers ? " she said, " my gween 
 house ? " 
 
 It was wonderful how she had picked up 
 ideas of taste and beauty. There were 
 two or three ledges in the stone work, 
 where a block had loosened here and 
 there and fallen, or had been pried out, 
 and here the child had actually placed pots 
 of wild flowers. They had given the pots at 
 the great mansion, and she had filled them
 
 JUDY'S GREENHOUSE. 25 
 
 from the road-side, with whatever she 
 could find that pleased her eye. Chick- 
 weed, and mullein, and pepper-grass, and 
 the little pinkish gray " pussies " that 
 children .love so well to brush against their 
 cheeks, and cowslips, and a tall white 
 daisy. 
 
 It was a singular collection, but I 
 doubt very much if ever the rarest con- 
 servatory gave more pleasure to its owner, 
 than did Judy's " gweenhouse " to the 
 little brown maiden who stood by my side, 
 pointing proudly to her treasures. 
 
 " I bring my tin pail full of water every 
 day, vey are such firsty fings ; vey drink 
 it all up, and it makes em grow." 
 
 The child was delighted when I told her 
 something about the plants, how they 
 have to feed upon the air, and the sunlight,
 
 26 JIMMY DON. 
 
 and the moisture, in order to keep life in 
 them, just as much as she had to eat, and 
 drink, and breathe the sweet pure atmos- 
 phere, if she would not die. Her blue 
 eyes opened wider upon me with an ear- 
 nest wonder, as I explained to her how the 
 roots take the moisture from the earth, and 
 make it into sap, and send it up through 
 the stalk, and abroad over the leaves ; and 
 how the sap is changed by the light and 
 air, and sent back again with fresh vigor 
 to nourish the plant, just as the blood 
 courses through our bodies, to the lungs, 
 and is purified by the air, and returned by 
 way of the heart to all parts of our frame. 
 Of course I had to use very simple lan- 
 guage ; but children are quick to under- 
 stand when they are taught by objects 
 that impress, and I was very sure little
 
 JUDY'S GREENHOUSE. 27 
 
 Judy would never forget the " leaf lungs " 
 of her pretty plants, that were so impor- 
 tant to the life of the vegetable, any more 
 than she would the lungs in her chest, 
 through which she drank in God's blessed 
 air. 
 
 " You see vat great white daisy ? " she 
 said. " Well I love it best of all my flow- 
 ers. I bwought it from ve gween bed 
 where vey laid my little brover's body, 
 when his soul went away to God. Ve 
 daisies stood all about in ve graveyard, 
 bending ver heads down as if vey were 
 sorry for mover and me cos we had to 
 
 
 
 leave ve baby and come home wivout him, 
 and I took vis one away wiv me." 
 
 " It can tell you a beautiful story about 
 the dear little brother, if you will let it," I 
 said.
 
 28 JIMMY DON. 
 
 Judy asked, "What?" 
 
 Children are always ready for st6ries, 
 and grown people who have to deal with 
 them should have heart and mind rich 
 with such beautiful narrations as will 
 profit, while they amuse. 
 
 The little girl sat down by me on the 
 " gween velvet sofa," that was like squire 
 Bowen's. 
 
 " You can lean on ve pitty cushion, if 
 you're tired," said she ; " 'twon't hurt ve 
 bird." 
 
 " Now tell me," she added, as we were 
 nicely and comfortably settled. 
 
 " Make believe I am the daisy speak- 
 ing," I said. " Now see how I stand up 
 here, so bright and lovely, with my pure 
 white dress, and my golden crown ! " 
 
 "Yes," answered the little creature, as
 
 JUDY'S GREENHOUSE. 29 
 
 if I were really the flower, and were 
 speaking to her, and expecting a re- 
 sponse. 
 
 "Well, once I lay down in the brown 
 earth, quite under the sod, and people 
 walked about just where I was, and imag- 
 ined what was to be by and by, when the 
 glad spring time would open, and the frost 
 and snow would vanish, and the sun would 
 quicken to life all the seeds that were in 
 the dark ground. But they always forgot, 
 while the winter was with them, how very 
 lovely this awakening would be. They 
 would grumble over the chilling weather, 
 and wish there was no such thing as the 
 season of dearth and snow, and say to 
 themselves, "How long it seems to the 
 summer 1 How long it seems to the sum- 
 mer!"
 
 30 JIMMY DON. 
 
 Meanwhile, God was caring for me in 
 my dark, deep bed. My life was hidden 
 from the world. The people said, "The 
 daisy is dead." They were mistaken. In 
 our heavenly Father's good time the ice- 
 bands were broken from the earth, and 
 the warm breath of the sun came down 
 into the deep place where I lay, and I 
 heard a voice saying, " Awake ; arise ! " 
 
 Then I had power given me to push up 
 green sprouts through the mold and to 
 catch the beautiful light and the rain- 
 drops, and I grew and grew, and took upon 
 me such glory that a dear little girl 
 wanted me in her own home, to dwell with 
 her, and she took me away from the place 
 of the dead, and put me where her loving 
 eyes can ever rest upon me, and we are 
 oh, so happy ! so happy ! "
 
 JUDY'S GREENHOUSE. 31 
 
 " Vat is me," said Judy. " I like vat ; 
 but about little brover ? " 
 
 " Yes I'm coming to it ; I did not 
 forget. Like the daisy, he, too, is resting 
 in the deep earth, but people say wrongly 
 ' He is dead.' God holds his life in his 
 hand, and by and by, when the winter of 
 this world is broken up, and the bright- 
 ness of the eternal day shines in upon the 
 burial-ground, the little body will spring 
 up with renewed powers ; and God will 
 take it away from the place of death to 
 be for ever with him, in his glorious home, 
 where it shall have a pure white robe, and 
 a beautiful crown of gold, and shall be so 
 happy ; oh, so happy ! We must not be 
 impatient for the winter of the grave to 
 be gone. We must not murmur while our 
 beloved ones lie resting in the ground,
 
 32 JIMMY DON. 
 
 and say to ourselves, ' I wish there was 
 np such thing as death ; how long is the 
 resurrection in coming ! ' We must re- 
 member that God watches over little 
 sleeping brother in the graveyard, and 
 that we shall surely some day hear his 
 voice saying, ' Awake ; arise ! ' and that 
 then we shall be for ever with our darling, 
 and with God." 
 
 " Vat's a pitty story ; thank you," said 
 the child, " I like stories ; tell me anover, 
 please." 
 
 " I must go home now," I said ; "but if 
 God permits, I will come again soon to 
 keep house with you, little Judy, in your 
 green place. I believe I'm almost a child 
 again myself, I've had such a good time 
 here with you and Jimmy Don. Take 
 care of the little fellow ; I should feel sad
 
 JUDY'S GREENHOUSE. 33 
 
 enough if any thing should happen to him 
 before I shall see him again." 
 
 I thought only of the chance that the 
 demijohn might be broken, but Judy, true 
 to her motherly nature, said, " He's had 
 ve measles and ve scarlet fever. I hope 
 he won't get sick any more." 
 
 She hugged him closer to her heart, as 
 if to ward off the very possibility of any 
 evil, and trotted along beside me until I 
 reached the car-route. 
 
 I was really sorry to say good-bye, 
 the little creature had taken such hold of 
 my heart. " I will try and come to see 
 your mother in a few days, dear little 
 Judy," I said ; " don't forget me." 
 
 Forget me ! Her eyes strained after 
 me until the car was out of sight, and I 
 could hear the earnest voice saying, 
 
 3
 
 34 JIMMY DON. 
 
 " Come very soon again, Miss Karlen, do 
 come very soon again."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 JUDY'S MOTHER. 
 
 A WEEK and more passed away, 
 before I could fulfill my promise to 
 little Judy. She was in my mind all the 
 time, and my fingers were busy for her. 
 I crocheted a tiny hat of scarlet and 
 white worsted for her baby-boy, and stuck 
 a mite of a scarlet feather in it, and made 
 a long red frock to correspond. I put 
 sleeves to the dress, though Jimmy Don 
 had no arms, and I took a childish delight 
 in stuffing them, that they might better 
 represent life. The hours flew on leaden 
 wings, so eager was I to go to my new
 
 36 JIMMY DON. 
 
 friendj and to see her sunny blue eyes 
 dance with joy for these added treasures. 
 
 I was visiting a rich relative, whose 
 children had such quantities of expensive 
 toys that they were satiated with them, 
 and turned away from the most perfect 
 and costly, to some rough thing that their 
 own brains had invented, and their own 
 hands made. 
 
 I was weary of nursery quarrels over 
 trifles light as air, which would have had 
 no place if the little lives were not tor- 
 mented by the constant presence and 
 watchfulness of two maid-servants, who 
 anticipated every wish and thought of 
 the children, and took from them all self- 
 reliance. 
 
 I had partly decided to buy a large, fine 
 doll for Judy, but my experience taught
 
 JUDY'S MOTHER. 37 
 
 me to wait a little while, and not to thrust 
 too many gifts upon her, lest I should 
 spoil her beautiful world, that was to her 
 all the dearer because it was the work of 
 her own creation ; so I let the new doll 
 go for awhile, and contented myself with 
 the thought of helping the little child 
 when she could not walk alone. I was 
 fully resolved not to tie hands and feet, 
 and put sickly sweets into her mouth, as 
 was the case with my poor, rich, little rela- 
 tives. 
 
 I made a small paste-board trunk, with 
 a lid and a hasp, and packed it with Jim- 
 my Don's new dress and hat, and set out 
 one fine day on my journey, with as much 
 glee as if I were going across the water 
 to see the wonderful things that my eyes 
 longed for. It is such happiness to know
 
 38 JIMMY DON. 
 
 that you have pleasure in store for others ; 
 surely one feels the blessedness of giving, 
 though only a cup of cold water ! 
 
 Judy saw me afar off, for she sat in the 
 shanty-door sewing two bits of calico 
 together. She gave one bound toward me, 
 and covered my hand with warm kisses. 
 
 " I fought you were never coming any 
 more," she said. " Poor Jimmy and I are 
 tired of watching ; the little fellow's fast 
 asleep now, but mover's here and will 
 be so glad ! " 
 
 A tidy-looking woman, hearing our 
 voices, came to welcome me to what she 
 called her " poor place," but one loses the 
 sense of poverty when there is such per- 
 fect neatness as every where appeared in 
 Mrs. Turner's home. The bare floor was 
 as white as soap and sand could make it,
 
 JUDY'S MOTHER. 39 
 
 and a smell of new lime told me that the 
 walls had just been re- washed. 
 
 The table, set for dinner, had a pure 
 
 cotton cloth upon it, and a plate of bread 
 
 
 at one end, and a covered tureen in the 
 
 middle. From an iron pot over the stove 
 in the corner there issued a savory smell, 
 and I felt certain that this was the famous 
 soup that Judy had imitated in her own 
 small way. 
 
 The woman was not at all fluttered. 
 She was in her palace, and carried herself 
 like a princess. I think she felt that her 
 Father was a great King, and that despite 
 her distance from his house and court, 
 and her apparent lowliness, the thought 
 of the dignity of her royal birth, and of 
 the certainty that the King would some 
 day call her to his immediate presence,
 
 40 JIMMY DON. 
 
 gave her a self-possession that others who 
 have not this consciousness can not com- 
 mand. 
 
 You children will better understand me 
 when I say that she was the child of God, 
 and saw always near her the Divine Face, 
 and so was never abashed by the coming 
 of any mortal, though she was gentle, and 
 meek, and courteous. She had a fresh, 
 wholesome face, that showed her clean 
 soul the moment you looked at her. It 
 is a strong bond when I can take a hand 
 like hers, and feel that we can kneel down 
 together and say, " Our Father." 
 
 " I need not ask your name," said she, 
 "for Judy has said almost nothing else 
 since she met you. It was very kind of 
 you to be so indulgent to her childish 
 whims."
 
 JUDY'S MOTHER. 41 
 
 "The kindness was to me," I replied. 
 " Little people do us who are growing old 
 great good, when they make us forget 
 every thing else to be children again. I 
 don't know when I have been happier 
 than with Judy and her baby, in the little 
 play-time that we had together. I only 
 hope we shall renew the pleasure often." 
 
 " The child is alone in the world ; no 
 little companions," she said. " It is better 
 so than that she should learn evil ways ; 
 but it makes her an odd little creature to 
 live so much with her own thoughts." 
 
 " She seems to have company enough 
 in Jimmy Don," I replied ; " I love to see 
 her motherly tenderness toward that sin- 
 gular baby." 
 
 " You wouldn't wonder that she clings 
 so to it, if you could know that it brought
 
 42 JIMMY DON. 
 
 life to her, poor little thing ! " said the 
 woman. " She was six months old, and 
 wearing away because my milk did not 
 agree with her. For some time I did not 
 know what was the matter. It was pitiful 
 to see her getting thinner and thinner, 
 and weaker and weaker, day after day, until 
 she could scarcely hold up her head at all. 
 Then the doctor "came, and told me to 
 change her food, and I let her take it from 
 this little demijohn, because she had it as 
 a play-thing, and could hold by the handle 
 as she drank ; and so she became attached 
 to it. She used to go to sleep rocking it, 
 and hugging it to her breast, as she lay 
 rocking upon mine ; and when she got 
 older I marked the eyes and nose and 
 mouth upon it, to please her, and make it 
 seem more like a human being, and now
 
 JUDY'S MOTHER. 43 
 
 I think it would nearly break her heart to 
 part with it." 
 
 I was glad there were no other associa- 
 tions than those of sweet, pure, life-giving 
 milk connected with the little demijohn. 
 I knew that in many a lowly home, the 
 miseries of children had come through 
 these straw-covered channels ; and it was 
 a question that I put to myself when I 
 first saw Judy's baby, what had been its 
 early history. Now my heart was at rest.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DINNER WITH JUDY. 
 
 THE child left me to talk with her 
 mother, and went back to sit in 
 the door and watch over Jimmy, and to 
 finish her task of patch-work, before she 
 could go to play, but now and then she 
 would give me a sly glance, as if to make 
 sure that I was contented, and would not 
 hasten away. Somehow I had no wish 
 to go very soon, and I had a sort of crav- 
 ing to taste the soup, that sent forth such 
 a savory odor. The woman took it from 
 the fire, and poured it into the tureen. 
 " Perhaps you will eat some ? " she said
 
 AT J0DY 8,
 
 DINNER FOR JUDY. 45 
 
 rather hesitatingly, " It is dinner time, 
 and the soup is nice and hot." 
 
 Judy brought the high 'chair, and 
 perched close beside me. 
 
 " Will you ask a blessing ? " said Mrs. 
 Turner. 
 
 It is beautiful when the poor look up to 
 heaven and thank God for " his bounty" 
 as they sit at their scanty tables. The 
 blessing surely comes in answer to such 
 grateful hearts. The few loaves and 
 fishes turn to more than enough, and over 
 twelve baskets of fragments are gathered 
 up. 
 
 Judy folded her little hands and bowed 
 her head, and said amen to the short 
 prayer. Then we fell to work in good 
 earnest. 
 
 " Delicious ! " I exclaimed.
 
 46 JIMMY DON. 
 
 " Better van I made the over day," 
 said the little girl. " Mover knows how." 
 
 I wondered what my fashionable ac- 
 quaintances would have said, to see my 
 enjoyment of this humble dinner-party ; 
 and then there came to me the sublime 
 thought, that I was privileged to sit at 
 meat with God's poor, who had the honor 
 of his presence much oftener than did the 
 rich, when he came down to earth to walk 
 with men. It seemed to me that I could 
 feel a heavenly influence in this little 
 shanty, such as I had never experienced 
 in a rich man's house ; and then I knew 
 that God makes up* to the righteous poor 
 for the lack of a perishable wealth, by a 
 glory that will endure for ever. 
 
 The sun streamed in^ at the open door, 
 making a flood of light in which the an-
 
 DINNER WITH JUDY. 47 
 
 gels stood gazing upon us. What if we 
 could not see them ! They were none the 
 less in the room, and the children of God 
 have a spiritual consciousness of what the 
 natural eye can not perceive. They feel 
 God and the ministering spirits all about 
 thefn, and it gives to earth a foretaste of 
 the /Bl| er world. 
 
 Lmle\ Judy got down from her perch, 
 and went and spread out her hands in the 
 light. " I love it," she said, " and my 
 flowers love it, how vey gwow ? " Then 
 she took her jb&by and held him in the full 
 radiance, as pf Paris they give the little 
 naked infants a sun-bath once a day, to 
 make them vigorous and healthy. 
 
 Her mother watched her with glisten- 
 
 > 
 
 ing eyes, and a face beaming with affec- 
 tion. " I have only the child left now,"
 
 48 JIMMY DON. 
 
 said she. " Her father was taken a year 
 ago and the little brother just after. I do 
 not mean that I haven't them still in my 
 heart and thoughts, but one misses sadly 
 the faces, and longs for them. God gives 
 me great comfort in Judy though ; we 
 have happy times here together." 
 
 I could tell that, in every little arrange- 
 ment about the place, things were fitted 
 to please the child, as well as the mother. 
 There were rough shelves low down, 
 with a few toys of the woman's own make ; 
 a rabbit of white canton-flannel, with 
 pink ears and black eyes ; some paper 
 dolls, and a small wooden table with a red 
 cloth on it ; and a little pile of story 
 books, that had been gathered from time 
 to time out of her spare earnings. 
 
 But what delighted me more than any-
 
 DINNER WITH JUDY. 49 
 
 thing, was a picture that hung at the foot 
 of the bed. It was an engraving of the 
 better sort, and represented a little child 
 holding by the hand of her good angel, 
 and looking up with a sweet, trustful ex- 
 pression that seemed to say, " I am safe 
 with such a leader ; I cannot hurt my foot 
 against a stone." Mrs. Turner told me 
 that it was given her by a city missionary, 
 who felt the worth of such silent teachers 
 in homes where there is not much to feast 
 the eyes upon, and I thought it would be 
 well if all colporters were provided with 
 sacred pictures as well as tracts, for the 
 refreshment and instruction of the poor. 
 
 There was a stand by the bed-side with 
 a Bible upon it. A few chairs and a small 
 bureau completed the furniture of the 
 room. Those who are accustomed to 
 
 4
 
 50 JIMMY DON. 
 
 great luxury, to all sorts of superfluities, 
 
 * 
 
 would say " What a barren place ! " but the 
 woman's face showed me that she had 
 filled up what looked to others like empty 
 space with visions of beauty and love, 
 that never allow a discontented thought to 
 enter the heart or wrinkle the brow ; and 
 surely that place is never barren, where 
 God and the holy angels make their 
 abode. 
 
 Judy put the last stitch into the pink 
 and white calico, and got her mother's ap- 
 proval of her work. Then she made a 
 dive under the bed and pulled out a 
 square wooden box to show to me. It 
 held her baby's wardrobe one little gray 
 cape and a. white apron, that was all ; 
 but she felt it an abundance, and began to 
 tie the things about Jimmy and make him
 
 DINNER WITH JUDT. 51 
 
 .ready to go with us. You should have 
 seen her joy, as I gave her the pretty 
 trunk, with the jaunty hat and feather and 
 red dress. She took them out tenderly, 
 as if a touch would hurt them, and she 
 showed them to her mother and to the 
 great black cat that sat purring by the 
 door, and she taljced to Jimmy about them 
 all the time she was adorning him. 
 
 " We'll wear ve old clothes when we 
 haven't got company," said she. " Oh my ! 
 how pitty ! how pitty ! And Jimmy can 
 put his arms wound my neck now, his 
 beautiful fat arms ! " That was the sweet- 
 est pleasure to her of all, that her baby 
 co.uld hug her "as little brover used to 
 hug mover." It opened so many new 
 delights. 
 
 " He shall have a wattle to hold in his
 
 52 JIMMY DON. 
 
 little hand " she said, " a pitty bwight wat- 
 * tie, wiv tinkling bells vat make music as 
 we walk." 
 
 The trunk was a marvel of beauty to 
 Judy, who examined it inside and out, her 
 eyes glistening as she noticed the pink 
 cambric lining, and the little tray for 
 Jimmy's hat, and- the picture of a country- 
 scene on the inside of the lid. There was 
 a river gliding along, and there were 
 green banks with a growth of the dwarf 
 willow, and plants drooping their blossoms 
 over the stream, and a shallow boat with a 
 boy and girl in it, moving gently as the 
 water flowed. It was quite a new world 
 to Judy, and I knew it would be a pleas- 
 ure to her to turn to it, and dream over it, 
 when other things grew wearisome. Chil- 
 dren have so much imagination, they
 
 DINNER WITH JUDT. 53 
 
 make a great deal out of a little. With 
 this one simple picture before her, in the 
 heat of summer time, when people escape 
 from the city to running waters and 
 green pastures and bright blossoms, the 
 poor child could also go out from the 
 close shanty to such freedom and beauty 
 as God has made for all whose thoughts 
 choose breadth and light and glory. No- 
 body need be pent up. It is exactly as 
 " Patience Strong" says, " Everybody's 
 little yard-room opens into all out doors." 
 We can all send our heart and our 
 thoughts wherever we please over this 
 wondrous earth, with its treasures scat- 
 tered from God's bounteous hand and 
 beyond to the everlasting hills, and to 
 the holy city with its shining inhabitants 
 going to and fro in the Divine radiance.
 
 54 JIMMY DON. 
 
 Judy put the new trunk safely away, 
 and kissed her mother, and we two, with 
 Jimmy, went out for our holiday-time ; 
 Mrs. Turner watching us with a glad face, 
 content to endure the burden and toil of 
 life, so that her little tender one might be 
 free and happy. In this compassionate 
 spirit are mothers like our blessed Lord 
 Jesus, who bore our griefs, and carried 
 our sorrows, that we might live in hope 
 and joy.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 JUDY'S FIRST LESSONS. 
 
 NOBODY had disturbed Judy's 
 house. It was good that it was 
 far away from the groups of hovels that 
 swarmed with little children. She could 
 leave doors open from day to day, and 
 find things just as safe as if under lock 
 and key. I don't know which of us was 
 happiest, as we sat down to rest and 
 looked about the old cellar. 
 
 The ailanthus nodded a welcome, and 
 the plants in Judy's conservatory were as 
 fresh and bright as could be ; and the 
 sweet scent of white clover came to us
 
 56 JIMMY DON. 
 
 from the green all about the place. We 
 should not have dreamed that there was 
 a great huddle of houses a short distance 
 away, if we had not occasionally gone up 
 to our front-door to look abroad. 
 
 It was Judy's washing-day, and without 
 minding my presence, she got out her 
 tubs, as she called two big chips, and 
 went heartily to work. I held Jimmy, 
 while she scrubbed, and rinsed, and hung 
 out the clothes. She made as .much ado 
 over her task as if it were real, and her 
 little face was red and moist from the 
 exertion ; and when Jimmy's wardrobe 
 was flapping upon the line, the little 
 mother sat down panting and tired for a 
 minute, and then was up and flitting 
 hither and thither about some other work. 
 She baked bread in her kitchen stove, and
 
 JUDY'S FIRST LESSONS. 57 
 
 made a molasses-cake for tea, and stewed 
 some dried apples in a sauce-pan ; coming 
 ev<iry minute to see if I were weary of 
 the baby, and if he were good and not 
 " cwying for his mover." 
 
 " I hope he'll be still a little bit longer," 
 she said, "for I want to wun over and 
 carry a piece of vis nice, hot cake to 
 blind Betty. She lives way across ve 
 gween, wiv nobody to take care of her 
 but little Jake ; he's a good boy. I 
 want my Jimmy to grow up like him, 
 and ven, if I'm blind, he'll help me as 
 Jake helps his mover." 
 
 I did not know whether the child 
 was in earnest or not, until I watched 
 her from the topmost steps, as she sped 
 across the clover-dotted turf, and was 
 lost to my sight.
 
 58 JIMMY DON. 
 
 Presently she came back, leading a 
 neat looking lad who was about ten 
 years old. " Vis is Jake," she said. " His 
 mover and my mover used to live in 
 ve same place. Betty and Jake have 
 just moved here. I shall have some- 
 body to play wiv now ; mover's willing 
 I should play wiv Jake, cos he's a good 
 bpy." 
 
 The little fellow was as neat as a 
 new pin, and was evidently in better 
 circumstances than Judy, for he wore 
 shoes and stockings, and his clothes, 
 though coarse, were unpatched. 
 
 " Jake can wead," said Judy, proud 
 of her young companion's accomplist)- 
 ments ; " such pitty stories ! " 
 
 That was just what I had been wish- 
 ing for; somebody to teach little Judy
 
 JUDY'S FIRST LESSONS. 59 
 
 at such times as I could not myself 
 come to her, for I felt that we must 
 not spend all our leisure time in play, 
 but must be laying the foundation for 
 an earnest, useful life. I had brought 
 a book in my pocket to give my pet 
 her first lesson from, and Jake could 
 keep the letters in her mind until my 
 next visit. There were letters and words 
 alone, without any pictures. I wanted 
 them to be pictures themselves to the 
 child's eye, without the confusion that 
 would come from a mixed thought. 
 Then, when I had fixed the shape of 
 the letters upon her mind, I had pages 
 of pretty pictures without any reading, 
 and I meant often to teach her, after 
 the German fashion, " object lessons ; " 
 and by and by, when the right hour
 
 60 JIMMY DON. 
 
 had come, I would combine for her 
 written stories and pictorial illustrations. 
 
 She was glad to leave her play for 
 the letters. It was a step towards Jake, 
 and she was eager to learn ; so we 
 made good progress in the very be- 
 ginning, and as a reward, I told her 
 about the little ants that were running 
 so busily to and fro with their black 
 coats glistening in the sun-light. She on 
 one side of me, and Jake on the other, 
 were ready listeners.^ 
 
 There is nothing so pleasing to chil- 
 dren as facts in natural history. Every 
 little space around them is teeming 
 with strange, living, working creatures, 
 that may be made familiar and beautiful 
 to the young, whose early life is spent 
 out of doors. The tiny ant-hills, here and
 
 JUDY'S FIRST LESSONS. 61 
 
 there, were of slight interested" Judy 
 and Jake until this dayx.wken I showed 
 to them the wonders going on in the 
 under-ground galleries. Judy's eyes spar- 
 kled with delight, as I told her how 
 the nurses feed and care for the baby- 
 ants ; bringing them up to the surface 
 of the earth to get the sun's heat, and 
 carrying them to a place of safety when 
 bad weather -threatens, or when their 
 home is disturbed. She and Jake were 
 especially pleased with the description 
 of the ant cows, or " aphides," or " vine- 
 fretters" whose milk is so precious to 
 the ants, that they often build small 
 clay galleries from their hills up to the 
 trees, and even to the branches upon 
 which the aphides abound, and fre- 
 quently keep their cows in their own
 
 62 JIMMY DON. 
 
 premises, and gather leaves for them to 
 feed upon. 
 
 " What do the ants eat ? " asked Judy. 
 
 " Don't you know ? " said Jake. " They 
 get into the cake-chest, and the bread- 
 jar, and sugar-bowl, and make such a 
 time in the pantry. Mother says she 
 had as lief have a bear in her closet 
 as these little thieves." 
 
 "And they feast upon small insects, 
 and dead birds, and whatever carcase 
 they can find," said I. " If we want 
 the skeleton of any small animal thor- 
 oughly cleansed, we have only to place 
 it near an ant-hill, when it is quickly 
 stripped of the flesh. They do a great 
 deal of good in this way, by clearing 
 the earth of animal and vegetable sub- 
 stances that would putrefy and create
 
 JUDY'S FIRST LESSONS. 63 
 
 sickness. God has made nothing with- 
 out a purpose." The children stooped 
 down to the ground to watch the little 
 busy ants, with a new interest. Judy 
 had to take Jimmy, and show him the 
 bustling active creatures, and tell him 
 what " Miss Karlen " had told her, and 
 when she had finished her little stock 
 of knowledge she came back to me for 
 more. 
 
 " I like to hear," she said, with her 
 eager face upturned to mine, and such 
 a craving in it that I must needs try 
 to satisfy her. 
 
 " And I love to tell you, dear little 
 Judy, because you are such an atten- 
 tive hearer. There's ever so much more 
 about these mites of creatures that God 
 has so curiously and wonderfully made.
 
 64 JIMMY DON. 
 
 There are the red ants, real slave- 
 holders. They go in a strong army to 
 the nests of other ants, and steal away 
 the workers when they are too little 
 to resist, and carry them to their own 
 homes, where they make them do ser- 
 vice for them when they are old enough. 
 I must get ' Huber ' and read to you 
 and Jake the things that I cannot re- 
 member without the book. He was the 
 son of the great Huber who wrote on 
 bees. Some men spend all their lives 
 in finding out things for others. It would 
 be wicked if we did not try to learn 
 from these helpers all that we can." 
 I did not expect my little four years' 
 old pupil to grow suddenly into a ma- 
 ture scholar, and to care more for books 
 and lessons than she did for play. I
 
 JUDY'S FIRST LESSONS. 65 
 
 should not have liked that at all. I 
 was glad to get down to her tiny level, 
 and amuse myself with the simplest 
 things as she did. 
 
 5
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BLIND BETTY. 
 
 IT was a rest and refreshing to sit 
 in the old cellar upon a rough 
 board, and hold Jimmy Don, and make 
 believe that I was away back in the 
 long ago, with no interval between ; 
 no interval wherein had been anything 
 less innocent than childrens' follies, less 
 satisfying than childrens' pleasures. 
 
 So we three, Jake and Judy and I, 
 put aside our books, and our treatise 
 on Natural History, and 'went up from 
 our cellar to hunt four-leaved clover ; 
 and I was as pleased as could be to
 
 BLIND BETTY. 67 
 
 get one first, and Judy and Jake were 
 happy, because they felt me to be a 
 very child with them. 
 
 The day was just as beautiful as it 
 could be, with the deep blue of* the 
 sky, and the bright green of the earth, 
 and a freshness everywhere, because of 
 recent showers. I looked up at the 
 great celestial dome, and felt myself to 
 be in a temple not made with hands. 
 And God seemed to pervade all things 
 around me. The little girl touched me 
 as I stood with my eyes raised in holy 
 worship. 
 
 " What is it ? " she asked. 
 * 
 
 " It is God everywhere, dear little 
 
 Judy. He is in the heavens, and upon 
 the earth. How glorious the sky is, 
 because of him ! What gladness there
 
 68 JIMMY DON. 
 
 is in all the earth ! We will love him 
 more and more, will we not ? this 
 good Father who gives us such beauty 
 and such joy. Little children can do 
 him honor and service. He cares for 
 them more than for us grown people, 
 who have wandered often and far from 
 his dear face." 
 
 There were tears in my eyes, for I 
 felt my great distance from the purity 
 of the little child before me, but she 
 drew me down to her, and threw nay 
 arms around my neck, -and laid her soft 
 cheek to mine, and kissed me, and said, 
 "Don't" cwy, Miss Karlen, God loves 
 you, and I love you too." 
 
 And I felt that he did love me, de- 
 spite the long interval with its many 
 short comings, and that he is never
 
 BLIND BETTY. 69 
 
 very far away from us, although he is 
 high and holy, and inhabiteth eternity ; 
 but that he makes his dwelling with the 
 humble and contrite soul. 
 
 Little Judy's assurance was as the 
 message of an angel to me, "God loves 
 you Miss Karlen, and I love you too." 
 Oh ! this human love, and this DivineM 
 That is what we need, and that is 
 what is so perfectly blended in our 
 blessed Lord Jesus, who knew and 
 provided for all our necessities. A 
 child's simple expression teaches me 
 what fullness is in our gracious Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 " Will you go and see mother ? " said 
 Jake, "'tis not very far from here. She 
 has been " blind for two years, and it 
 does her good to be with people though
 
 70 JIMMY DON. 
 
 she can not see them. She says voices 
 and sounds are all the world to her 
 now." 
 
 He led, and Judy and I followed. I 
 had nothing to do but to obey my 
 will, and my will was the childrens' will 
 while I was with them. I was having 
 such a grand holiday ! I took my play- 
 spell gleefully too, for I knew that in 
 
 * 
 
 this work-day world, there would be my 
 portion of the burden and the care, 
 and that after this recreation I should 
 be stronger to endure whatever of toil 
 might come. 
 
 Betty's house was a trifle larger than 
 Mrs. Turner's, but it lacked the space 
 outside, for we had to reach it through an 
 alley-way that led out of a short street, 
 and there was a row of brick tenements in
 
 BLIND BETTY. 71 
 
 front and in the rear. It was farther than 
 "across the green." 'Children always 
 shorten distances ; their little fresh, fleet 
 limbs so quickly overstride the longest 
 road ! I was tirad enough, yet wholly 
 repaid for my weariness. -Blind Betty 
 was short and stout, and as blithe as a 
 girl, and she had the sort of wisdom that 
 comes from looking continually within ; 
 and that does us good who keep our eyes 
 open too much upon the world and worldly 
 things. 
 
 " It is one of God's children, I know," 
 she said, the moment I had spoken. 
 " You see, Miss Karlen, voices have come 
 to be as faces and forms to me now, and 
 I've learned to look through them for the 
 soul, as I used to look through peoples' 
 eyes, and I am never mistaken. I can tell
 
 72 JIMMY DON. 
 
 when the love of the Father is there, just 
 as well as if I should hear them say it." 
 
 Jake gave her the bunch of clover that 
 he had picked, and she pinned it to her 
 bosom, talking in the meantime of the 
 visions that it brought to her. 
 
 " Oh the great, green sweep with these 
 honey-blossoms spread over it, and the 
 golden-legged bees sipping and sipping, 
 and butterflies flitting about, and the little 
 rosy children making merry all the day ! " 
 
 She did not say it sadly, as if she were 
 sorrowing over any th'ing in her life that 
 had passed away ; but exultingly, as if it 
 were a beautiful thing in her memory 
 that nobody could take from her, and that 
 gave her cause for thanksgiving. Judy 
 climbed upon her lap and gazed pitifully 
 upon the sightless eyes, and Betty seemed
 
 BLIND BETTY. 73 
 
 to know that the child was thinking of 
 her misfortune, for she said, " Never mind. 
 If my eyes are shut, Jake's and yours are 
 open wide, dear little daughter, and can 
 see for me all that is good and beautiful ; 
 and as to the evil, why, we ought to be 
 thankful when we are not permitted to see 
 that.'.' 
 
 Blind Betty makes her living by fancy- 
 work. She can crochet such pretty col- 
 lars, and make such beautiful baskets of 
 beads strung upon wire. Jake sells them, 
 going from door to door, and every 
 body is willing to help and encourage 
 those who try to help themselves. 
 
 " Perhaps you'd like one of my baskets," 
 said she, as I was examining them, and 
 wondering at the skill that God gives to 
 the hands when he takes away the sight.
 
 74 JIMMY DON. 
 
 " I want you to have the very prettiest as 
 a token of gratitude. Little Judy has been 
 telling me all about your kindness to her, 
 and my heart warms to those who be- 
 friend the widowed and the fatherless." 
 
 I could not think what I had done, ex- 
 cept to please myself, by playing with 
 Judy ; but I knew what joy it is for the 
 poor to be sometimes givers, and so I took 
 a little blue and gold basket ; promising 
 Betty a new stock of beads when I should 
 come again. She showed me some trin- 
 kets that Jake had made ear-rings and 
 bracelets of beads, and toys cut from soft 
 wood the sale of which helped to bring 
 in something. 
 
 "Jake was like a man in the house," she 
 said ; " so steady at his work, and such a 
 provider ! "
 
 BLIND BETTY. 75 
 
 The boy looked pleased at this praise, 
 and replied, " ' Tis my mother that I work 
 for, ma'am." 
 
 I was not sorry for ihis new acquaint- 
 ance, made through Judy, whose world was 
 fast becoming my world. There were four 
 now to think of and feel an interest in, in- 
 stead of the - one little, strange child I 
 had met beside the shanty door.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OVER THE OCEAN. 
 
 I DID not dream that day, when I bade 
 the blind woman good-bye, and part- 
 ed from Jake and little Judy, at the road 
 which led to the car, that it would be quite 
 three years before I should see my little 
 girl and her baby again. Almost the last 
 glimpse I had of her was as she put Jim- 
 my Don's fat arms around her neck and 
 kissed him, her blue eyes beaming with 
 motherly rapture upon her darling. 
 
 There was another little girl that was 
 very dear to me, who must be carried 
 across the ocean, and with whom no body
 
 OVER THE OCEAN. 77 
 
 but " Aunt Karlen " could go ; so, before 
 there was time to take a jaunt in the 
 horse-cars, we were on board a steamer, 
 puffing our way over the broad sea. I had 
 told Cathey of my little pet, and to- 
 gether we made up a box to be sent to 
 her after we had left. Cathey had a new 
 wardrobe, and the old one, very nice 
 and pretty still, went in the box to Mrs. 
 Turner for Judy. There were shoes and 
 stockings and whole suits of under-clothes, 
 and dresses, bonnets, and books ; and a 
 large doll that could cry, and open and 
 shut its eyes. I should like to have been, 
 there when the box was received, and see 
 how Judy would feel about the doll ; wheth- 
 er it would take all the room in her mo- 
 therly heart, or if she would still cling to 
 Jimmy, as real mothers cling to their lit-
 
 78 JIMMY DON. 
 
 tie deformed children and love them best, 
 though others, bright and beautiful, may 
 be born to them. I did not forget the 
 stock of beads for blind Betty, and a box 
 of carving-tools for Jake, and some dress- 
 patterns of delaine for Mrs. Turner, to 
 whom I also sent a well-filled purse. 
 
 All my plans for Judy were nipped in 
 the bud. I could not teach and help her 
 as I intended to do, but somehow felt that 
 she would push upward through life, and 
 be all that God designed her, without any 
 assistance of mine. There were the pub- 
 lic schools in which every boy and girl, 
 however poor, could learn by a thorough 
 system, and if the desire for knowledge 
 is in us, we can satisfy the craving. I 
 thought of Judy, and often talked of her 
 to little Cathey, as we sat on the deck
 
 OVER TEE OCEAN. 79 
 
 watching the great waves with their white 
 crests ; but there was so much anxiety in 
 my heart for the little, wan figure beside 
 me, that I could not give much thought 
 to any thing else. Judy would be five 
 years old in a month, Cathey was already 
 seven, and both were mature for their 
 age ; the one, from the self-reliance that 
 is forced upon the children of the poor, 
 the other, from a life-long sickness which 
 had taken the blithesomeness out of her 
 childhood. 
 
 Dear, little Cathey ! How patient she 
 was, how full of sweetness, and how well 
 did she repay all my watching and nurs- 
 ing, by her love and trust in the Great 
 Father, and by the glimpses she gave me, 
 through her fine, beautiful nature, of that 
 spirit which we older people must covet
 
 80 JIMMY DON. 
 
 and try to possess if we would have the 
 kingdom of heaven ! 
 
 " The sea is so wonderful ! " she said, 
 fixing her large, dreamy eyes upon the 
 blue-green waters. " I wish I knew what 
 is down there in the deep places ; tell me. 
 It seems to me like the heavens that I 
 look into, up, up, past the stars, till I seem 
 to see God. It is just so down in the 
 beautiful ocean ; we are sure to meet him 
 every where, are we not, auntie ? " 
 
 " Every where, darling, if we climb 
 up into heaven, or go down into the deep. 
 It is pleasant to know that. His hand has 
 fashioned the bed of the ocean as well as 
 the dry land on which we live. There are 
 mountains and valleys under the waves, 
 and green plants, and pretty pearls and 
 shells, and such marvelous creatures glid-
 
 OVER THE OCEAN. 81 
 
 ing about within the waters ; and above it, 
 the sea-birds flapping their wings, and 
 diving now and then for their food." 
 
 Every morning Nurse Hannah brought 
 a light mattress and put it into the bow of 
 the boat, and there we would stay all the 
 day, never weary of the great stretch of 
 waters so constantly changing before our 
 eyes. The sooty-black petrel came skim- 
 ming along the waves, and gulls and other 
 aquatic birds. The fishes leaped and gam- 
 boled in the foam, and the music of the 
 winds and waves lulled us into such 
 dreamings, that we often wondered if we 
 were awake. Before we had time to make 
 up our minds upon this question, we were 
 in port, and amidst a strange people, but 
 happy, under the beautiful skies of Italy. 
 
 Among the mountains, where. the tall
 
 82 JIMMY DON. 
 
 chestnuts grow, and where the goats went 
 leaping from rib to rib of the great rocks, 
 Cathey and I had our beautiful southern 
 home. We were to be very quiet for a 
 while, till my little invalid had gained 
 strength, and then her father was to cross 
 the ocean and join us, and travel with his 
 little daughter, and so give her the knowl- 
 edge which she was not well enough to 
 derive from books. God puts one gift 
 over against another. To poor Judy he 
 gave robust health, and to rich but sickly 
 Cathey, plenty of money. To some he 
 gives the power to plod and digjbr learn- 
 ing, to others, whose brains will not bear 
 the strain and effort of study, the easy 
 way of gathering knowledge through the 
 eyes. 
 
 We were very comfortable, my little
 
 OVER THE OCEAN. 83 
 
 niece, Nurse Hannah and I, with Beppo 
 and good Antonia and their two daught- 
 ers in the little farmhouse, whence we 
 could look out upon the women as they 
 worked in the field in their pretty peas- 
 ant costumes ; the broad, Italian hat shad- 
 ing them from the sun. There were lines 
 of poplars, and rows of pines and olive- 
 trees, making the landscape green and 
 beautiful. Wheat and rye were waving 
 in the breeze, and in the distance, though 
 not very far away, the high hills looked 
 up toward heaven, and caught its majesty 
 and glory. Cathey loved the mountains 
 so ! 
 
 " You know, auntie dear," she said, " Je- 
 sus touched the mountains often with his 
 sacred feet. It seems to me but a step 
 from that high peak where the sun is
 
 84 JIMMY DON. 
 
 shining, right into the beautiful city where 
 the angels are. Oh, if I were only strong 
 enough to get to the very top ! But that 
 sounds like being sorry to lie here and see 
 the glory. I'm not sorry, nor unhappy. 
 I'm very glad, and contented, even if I 
 should never be well, nor climb the high 
 hills with Celia and Julia. Here they 
 come, the good girls, with their hands full 
 of blue corn-flowers and red poppies ! 
 They have not forgotten the little, sick girl. 
 It is so nice to be cared for, and to have 
 people think of you ! " 
 
 Every day the vase on Cathey's table 
 was filled with these bright, beautiful blos- 
 soms, and with the yellow saffron flowers. 
 The two girls would come and tell her 
 stories, and in the time of vintage they 
 brought clusters of ripe grapes in big
 
 OVER THE OCEAN. 85 
 
 vine leaves ; and when the chestnuts were 
 gathered, they often roasted some for the 
 little, delicate stranger, who had been 
 thrown upoi> their love and pity. 
 
 How nice Julia and Celia looked in their 
 holiday dress, their gay petticoats and 
 scarlet corsets, and pretty shoes and stock- 
 ings. When the Sunday morning broke 
 over the mountain-tops, the two girls and 
 their father and mother tripped off to ear- 
 ly service at the little chapel on the hill- 
 side, a mile away ; and Cathey watched 
 them from the high windows, as their 
 bright colors flashed in and out among the 
 green vines. 
 
 " They look like birds," she said, as they 
 grew smaller and smaller to her sight, and 
 only the brilliant patches shone like veins 
 here and there amidst the verdure. An-
 
 86 JIMMY DON. 
 
 tonia called them always her " singing 
 birds," they were so blithe and gay ; 
 trilling their sweet, Italian songs, as they 
 went merrily about their work, as careless 
 and as happy as these creatures of the 
 air, which sow not nor reap, nor gather 
 into barns, and yet are fed by a bounteous 
 hand. 
 
 Cathey and I learned their soft, musical 
 language, and almost forgot our mother- 
 tongue, except when the long home-letters 
 came, which made us wish to -go back 
 again across the sea. Then we would 
 pour out our whole hearts in our native 
 English, and droop for a day, when the 
 cheerfulness would return to us and we 
 would laugh and be gay with our peasant 
 companions. 
 
 It was amusing to see them drive off
 
 OVER THE OCEAN. 87 
 
 in their donkey-cart to market, laden with 
 vegetables, and surrounded by bouquets 
 of wild-flowers tastefully grouped and tied 
 
 for sale. Truely, Beppo and his wife had 
 
 <t 
 
 reason to be proud of their singing birds, 
 that brought not only pleasure but profit 
 to their home. 
 
 Slowly but surely little Cathey gained 
 strength, till she could go out and walk 
 among the flowers and vines ; and by-and- 
 by could reach the beautiful Alp on the 
 mountain's shoulder, and see the women 
 and children tending the cattle and mak- 
 ing cheese, and gathering leaves for the 
 goats, and mowing the sweet, short hay, 
 and plying the distaff. It was so differ- 
 ent from our land, where the women are 
 sheltered and cared for, and the men take 
 the rough, out-door labor. Except the
 
 88 JIMMY DON. 
 
 spinning and the cheese-making, Cathey 
 did not quite like this toil for the women ; 
 but they were healthy and happy, and the 
 active life in the open air made them live- 
 ly and cheerful. How rosy their cheeks 
 were'! How their eyes sparkled ! and as 
 they moved about in the sunlight, the 
 broad, goMen hoops in their ears shook 
 and glistened with their every motion. 
 
 Before a year had passed Cathey 's fa- 
 ther was with us, and we were upon the 
 move nearly all the time ; but there were 
 new beauties everywhere in the land- 
 scape, and we had not a minute in which 
 to be homesick. There were great, rocky 
 hights, with their faces like jewels, purple, 
 and green, and red, and yellow, and gray 
 and many other tints ; and there were green 
 vines carried up over these natural trel-
 
 OVER TEE OCEAN. 89 
 
 lises, hanging gracefully, and the pretty 
 ferns and flowers peeping from the crevi- 
 ces of the rocks. Oh, how glorious the 
 mountains were with this blossoming and 
 verdure below, and at the tops of some the 
 pure snow, and the fleecy clouds hanging 
 above it ! Then the busy peasants met us 
 all along our route with up-heaped baskets 
 of fruit, and bright yellow ears of maize. 
 Their costume varied in different parts of 
 the country. Here, the women wore scar- 
 let cloth dresses, and blue aprons, with a 
 neatly frilled chemise, and the men, a scar- 
 let waistcoat faced with blue ; a blue coat, 
 red leggins, and a scarlet, woolen cap. 
 There, the girls were clad in blue trowsers, 
 and a short, blue petticoat, and a loose 
 outer jacket ; a low scarlet bodice, but- 
 toned in front, and a snow-white chemise
 
 90 JIMMY DON. 
 
 of bleached hemp, with full sleeves and a 
 lace frill ; a red kerchief knotted behind 
 the head, or a blue kerchief upon the head , 
 and a scarlet hem round the bottom of the 
 blue petticoat. 
 
 Cathey was most surprised by the pro- 
 cessions, which, at the sound of the bells 
 on some feast-day, wound along to the 
 churches. There was the melody of 
 chanting in the air, and there were ban- 
 ners and crucifixes, and gilt. -lanterns on 
 poles, and long lines of peasants, each line 
 in different attire, and nearly all of them 
 women and girls ; the women wearing 
 wide, white vails which fell below the 
 waist, and the children having white 
 frocks and vails, and wreaths of roses 
 round the head and garlands of flowers in 
 the hand. The priests brought up the
 
 OVER THE OCEAN. 91 
 
 rear, in richly embroidered vestments of 
 purple, fine linen, and gold brocade, car- 
 rying the gold-enshrined " pyx," or box in 
 which the wafer is kept, and the massive 
 silver crucifixes, and the chorister-boys 
 followed in white surplices. The umbrel- 
 las of green, crimson, orange-blue, striped, 
 and yellow, made the scene very pleasing 
 and picturesque to a little child, and to 
 any body who had an eye for beauty and 
 variety of color. 
 
 It was fun to us to stop at the chalets, 
 when we were tired of our mule-rides, and 
 sit down to eat the rye bread and goat's- 
 cheese, which seemed a rare feast to hun- 
 gry appetites. The peasants made nice 
 omelets for us, and we had peas boiled 
 in the pod, which we learned to like very 
 much indeed. We had gone up from
 
 92 JIMMY DON. 
 
 southern Italy, and were chiefly among 
 the Swiss Alps, and the months went like 
 so many weeks ; there was so much to 
 gather to take home with us. 
 
 We heard now and then from Judy, 
 through a friend. The little thing was 
 half-crazed over the beautiful doll, and the 
 nice things that we had sent her ; but 
 when the excitement was gone, she pun- 
 ished herself for her momentary neglect of 
 Jimmy by laying the new baby away for a 
 day in the box, and devoting herself en- 
 tirely to her first-born. After that, she 
 talked to him of his sister, and laid the 
 children side by side to sleep, with the 
 brother's arm protectingly over the sister's 
 neck. 
 
 Cathey was so well now that she needed 
 only father and Nurse Hannah, and I was
 
 OVER THE OCEAN. 93 
 
 glad to turn my face westward again for 
 a season. My pet hung upon me, and 
 would scarcely permit me to leave her; 
 but I promised to go back to her after a 
 little while, with news from every body at 
 home ; and so she kissed me a cheerful 
 good-bye one morning when the sun lay 
 bright in the valley. " God will keep his 
 arm around us both, dear auntie," she 
 said. " I think he will surely bring us to- 
 gether again." 
 
 If it had not been for these sweet, trust- 
 ful words, I should not have been able to 
 turn away from her with so bright a face. 
 It is such a long leap across the Atlantic !
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 JUDY'S NEW HOUSE. 
 
 THINGS will not stop for us just 
 where they are, when we go away 
 for a year or more from any place. Mrs. 
 Turner's shanty was no longer on the 
 gold-be-spangled green, and over Judy's 
 cellar a fine, large house was built. I went 
 up instead of down some steps, and rang 
 a bell, and asked if the people could tell 
 me any thing of a little girl called Judy 
 Turner, who used to play about there, and 
 the lady of the house said " No. How 
 can I keep the run of all the children 
 that roam the street ? "
 
 JUDY'S NEW HOUSE. 95 
 
 It was not a very courteous answer, but 
 every body does not know and practice 
 the grace of true politeness. I thought, 
 of course, all the people in that vicinity 
 must be acquainted with little Judy, but 
 the lady had never seen her, and did not 
 even know her name. 
 
 Then I went to the house where Betty 
 and Jake lived, and strange faces met me. 
 It was such a disappointment ! 
 
 I had been too impatient to seek first 
 the friend who wrote to me of my little 
 girl, and had gone directly to the old place, 
 thinking to see the little ailanthus-tree 
 with many an added branch, and to play 
 at house-keeping with Jimmy and his 
 mother. 
 
 When I did seek my friend, she could 
 only tell me where my pet lived. She had
 
 96 JIMMY DON. 
 
 not seen her for a long time. Her inter- 
 ests lay in other people, and in other 
 quarters, and she had only looked after 
 Judy, once in a great while, to send news 
 to me across the water. 
 
 Ah, I caught them at last ! Far away 
 from the old place, quite at the other end 
 of the city, in, a tenement house ; but up, 
 up toward the roof, where they could 
 breathe the air of heaven, rather than the 
 lower stratum, which is not so sweet to 
 take into the lungs. They were under 
 one shelter now, Betty and Jake, and 
 Judy and her mother ; the first two at 
 one end of the hall, in the back rooms, 
 and the last two at the other end, in front 
 apartments, a bed-room and a " parlor." 
 
 Judy flew to meet me, when the door 
 opened, and she saw who it was ; but she
 
 JUDY'S NEW HOUSE. 97 
 
 was not exactly the little girl that I left 
 standing at the end of the car-route, with 
 bare feet, and worn, scant frock. 
 
 She had improved wonderfully, some- 
 how. It may be that Cathey's clothes had 
 put Cathey's proud spirit into her, but I 
 think not. I think she had always the 
 spirit to be nice and tidy, but the means 
 had been lacking. She had grown a head 
 taller, and had lost her babyish way of 
 talking, and could sound her th's and r's as 
 well as I could ; but in one thing she was 
 my own Judy, and that was in the trust- 
 ful, clinging disposition which had first 
 attracted me. I was glad to find that 
 her blue eyes were sunnier than ever, and 
 her brown hair had a fine gloss upon it; 
 and hung in great, loose curls about her 
 head. She wore a blue calico dress, and 
 
 7
 
 98 JIMMY DON. 
 
 a white bib apron, and neat little boots, 
 buttoned over the whitest of stockings ; 
 and she had been sitting at a stand by the 
 window, getting her lessons. 
 
 Her mother was younger than when I 
 left, instead of older. 
 
 " God has blessed me very much," she 
 said. " I have had plain sewing and plen- 
 ty of it, since the gift of your full purse 
 enabled me to change my home. We are 
 all doing well now, thanks to our heavenly 
 Father ! " 
 
 There was an ingrain carpet on the 
 floor, a pretty pattern which made one 
 think of green grass and fern leaves, 
 and the furniture, though cheap, was 
 tasteful, and there was an air of comfort in 
 the place that one does not always see in 
 the luxurious homes of the rich. It is
 
 JUDY'S NEW HOUSE. 99 
 
 such a rare and blessed gift, this power to 
 make even the humblest things minister to 
 our ease and pleasure ! Money cannot pur- 
 chase it. It must come direct from the 
 hand of God. It is a better talent than sil- 
 ver. I had not been long in the room be- 
 fore I espied what my eyes had been eager- 
 ly peering about to see. Judy's baby-house 
 had received additions. Under the table, 
 at the side of the room, was a little willow 
 cradle, and in it lay Jimmy Don and the 
 beautiful little sister, side -by side, in the 
 sweetest relationship. 
 
 " Jimmy loves her so ! " said Judy, fol- 
 lowing the direction of my gaze, and tak- 
 ing the two children from their resting 
 place. 
 
 She had not outgrown nor forgotten her 
 motherliness, and the imagination, which
 
 100 JIMMY DON. 
 
 used to have such full play as we sat on 
 the green velvet sofa in the old cellar, was 
 just as vivid now as ever. 
 
 "You see," she said, holding out the 
 same little demijohn with the cork face, 
 that had amused me long-ago, " Jimmy is 
 getting to be a great boy now ; he can 
 walk and talk, and take some care of his 
 little sister. I teach him to watch over 
 her, and to be very careful of her, for that's 
 the way for boys when they are older than 
 the girls. Jimmy thinks the world of 
 Rosa." 
 
 It was toward sunset when I made this 
 first visit to my Judy, and I could not stay 
 a great while ; but I sat down by the win- 
 dow, and took her and the two babies in 
 my arms, and we watched the glow of the 
 heavens, and talked together of the little
 
 JIMMY AM) ROSY.
 
 JUDY'S NEW HOUSE. 101 
 
 Cathey, far away among the southern hills, 
 and of the time when God should bring us 
 all to one eternal home. 
 
 " It is nice to be all together," said Ju- 
 dy. "We've had good times since we 
 lived here." 
 
 She was thinking of Betty and Jake 
 then. She was not quite ready to leave 
 present realities. Children are content 
 with the now ; older people are always 
 looking forward to something to come, and 
 the very aged go back to dwell in their 
 childhood. 
 
 " I must look in upon Betty before I 
 go," I said. 
 
 " Jake is in a store," said Judy ; " he 
 gets good wages. He is thirteen years 
 old now, and has grown tall. He comes 
 in and helps me with my books when-
 
 102 JIMMY DON. 
 
 ever he can. Jake is such a good 
 boy!" 
 
 " And does Betty still make the pretty 
 baskets ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes. What would become of her, 
 if her poor hands had to be idle ! I saw a 
 blind woman the other day, who did not 
 know how to do any thing, and her fingers 
 kept picking at her dress, and doubling 
 the bottom of the skirt into little folds all 
 the time ; and she worked her jaws as if 
 they were scissors, opening and shut- 
 ting them as fast as she could. I pitied 
 her, and was sorry she did not make bead 
 baskets, or knit, or crotchet mats and col- 
 lars, as Betty does." 
 
 " And you go to school, little Judy ? " 
 
 " Such a pleasant place ! " she replied. 
 " A great, brick schoolhouse, with room for
 
 JUDY'S NEW HOUSE 103 
 
 hundreds and hundreds of children, whether 
 they have money or not And we have 
 such good, kind teachers, and music, and 
 a beautiful play-ground at recess, and I 
 find so many little girls to love, and we 
 say such nice lessons ; Oh, I like school, 
 Miss Karlen ! I can read almost as well 
 as Jake, and am learning geography and 
 arithmetic and definer, and I am often at 
 the head of my class, and that makes me 
 very proud and very happy." 
 
 " They call Judy a bright scholar," said 
 Mrs. Turner. " The child gets on finely 
 with her studies, and is promoted every 
 quarter. She is like her father in her love 
 of books. I don't think she can do better 
 than to get all the knowledge she can. It 
 is worth more than other riches, because 
 it can not take wings and fly away."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT. 
 
 MRS. TURNER was such a sensi- 
 ble person ! I liked to talk with 
 her. She was not always fretting because 
 her lot was cast in a lowly place, and be- 
 cause she had to work while others lived 
 at ease, and because there was honey and 
 the wheaten loaf on many a table, while 
 hers had only rye bread and cheese. 
 
 " God puts things just where they 
 ought to be," she said. " If it were best 
 for me to be in a grand house, with 
 horses and carriages and servants and 
 gold at my command, I should be sure
 
 GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT. 105 
 
 to have them ; but I doubt not these 
 attic rooms are the rounds on the silver 
 ladder that lead me nearer to heaven. 
 I might be proud and lofty if I had 
 wealth and grandeur, and I might be 
 looking always on the glitter of my world- 
 ly goods ; whereas now, Judy and I sit 
 here in the evening, when the day's work 
 is all done, and look up at the stars, 
 and beyond them to the glory that is 
 promised by-and-by." 
 
 " So you are satisfied that God is not 
 partial when he gives to one wealth, and to 
 another poverty ? " said I, to test her faith. 
 It bore proving better than I thought it 
 would. 
 
 " More than satisfied that he is all wis- 
 dom and goodness," she said. " What we 
 call riches, may in his sight be the worst
 
 106 JIMMY DON. 
 
 poverty, especially if it work to the loss 
 of the soul, as gold too often does. God 
 partial ! Oh, no ! He gives to every one 
 of his creatures the thing that is right. 
 I should not wish to exchange my lot for 
 any other in the world. Judy and I have 
 had such blessings and joy in this life, and 
 it is so good to think that this is not all, but 
 that there is a house with God above. It 
 would be strange if we were not satisfied." 
 
 There were steps outside the door, just 
 as I arose to go, and Betty and Jake came 
 in. So the end of the three years had 
 brought us five together again. 
 
 The old, blind woman put her hand ten- 
 derly upon my forehead, and let it slide 
 gradually down my face, as if she were 
 taking measure to see what changes the 
 months had wrought, if any.
 
 GODLINESS WITII CONTENTMENT. 107 
 
 She said "My child ! " to me with 
 such large-hearted benevolence, as if she 
 could take all the world under her mother- 
 ly wing. " And so you have been abroad, 
 and have seen more and more of God's 
 love and power. It is a mercy to them 
 that take it in rightly. It isn't every body 
 that is enlarged by travel. There are some 
 people whom the more you feed, the leaner 
 they grow. I am sure you are not one of 
 these last, Miss Karlen. I can feel the 
 fullness in your face, which I know is in 
 your heart." 
 
 I was almost afraid of Betty, she seemed, 
 without eyes, to see so much farther than 
 others see with them, that it gave me a 
 sort of awe to be near her. But, then-, she 
 interpreted me so kindly. 
 
 Jake was as fine a looking lad as one
 
 108 JIMMY DON. 
 
 would wish to see. He had a manly figure 
 for a boy of his age, and a frank, honest 
 face that would make its way any where, 
 and beget perfect confidence. I had to sit 
 down again with the little party all 
 round me, and tell them something of 
 what I had seen and heard ; and they 
 listened with such delight that it was 
 worth the time and money I had spent 
 away from home. 
 
 Betty insisted, when I had finished talk- 
 ing, that she had herself been on the same 
 travels, and laughed to think with how 
 much more ease she had accomplished 
 them. And Jake and Judy followed me on 
 the map, and stopped for the night just 
 where I had left little Cathey, with the 
 golden morning about her, when she said, 
 "God will keep his arm around us both,
 
 GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT. 109 
 
 dear auntie, and I think he will surely 
 bring us together again." 
 
 It was a pleasant place to stop ; not far 
 from the foot of a mountain, on whose 
 sides the forest was falling into shade. 
 
 I shut my eyes for a minute, and re- 
 called, as in a strange dream, one evening 
 when Cathey and her father and I sat at 
 the foot of the mountain, on the bank of 
 a river, to see a religious procession pass. 
 It wound down a zig-zag track among the 
 dense trees, the many voices chanting 
 the Gregorian tones, and the river mur- 
 mering a symphony. First came a cross, 
 borne aloft, with banners, and gilt lan- 
 terns, and poles, followed by a hundred and 
 fifty women, two and two, dressed in long 
 white robes, and white, hood-like veils. 
 Then another crucifix, with banners, and a
 
 110 JIMMY DON. 
 
 hundred and fifty men wrapped in mantles 
 of brown sackcloth, and all with rosaries 
 of white beads. Another cross headed 
 a long, double file of women enveloped in 
 black, followed by a large body of men in 
 the same somber garb, and wearing black 
 hoods ; then about two hundred in white, 
 and, lastly, the priests. A canopy of crim- 
 son satin overshadowed the arch-deacon, 
 who, with his canons, were robed in their 
 embroidered vestments of crimson and 
 white satin, and gold. The procession had 
 come from a long distance, and a great 
 crowd followed them into the city to the 
 cathedral, where they went to offer up 
 their prayers. 
 
 I told this dream to my little party, and 
 old Betty, said " God has made it a very 
 easy pilgrimage to the throne of his grace ;
 
 GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT. Ill 
 
 shall we not go there before we part to- 
 night ? " 
 
 We were very glad to do so, for we all 
 felt the need of his refreshing ; so when 
 we had humbly knelt in his presence, and 
 said " Our Father," there was the peace 
 in our hearts which little children have at 
 night, as they are folded in their parents' 
 arms and receive the kiss of love and bene- 
 diction ; only a greater peace than that, 
 the peace that passeth all understanding. 
 
 Jake went home to my door with me, 
 and talked all the way of Judy, asking if I 
 did not think her a little beauty, and tell- 
 ing me more about her graces and accom- 
 plishments than I could have learned in 
 many days by my own observation. 
 
 " You see I live where I can know all 
 about her," he said. " She saves her mo-
 
 112 JIMMY DON. 
 
 ther every step that she can, and is as 
 kind as a daughter to my mother ; and her 
 face is always smiling and happy. She's 
 the best little creature I ever saw, and the 
 neatest and prettiest ! " 
 
 It was so much to be glad for, that I 
 almost forgot Cathey that night, and 
 went to sleep thinking more of the little 
 girl close by than of the traveler far 
 away ; but Cathey came to me in my 
 dreams before the morning, with a peas- 
 ant's garb on, and a wreath of the blue 
 corn-flowers about her head, and I was 
 not sure until the sunlight showed me my 
 empty room, that she had not been really 
 beside my bed. So God blesses us with 
 these visits of our dear ones, that make 
 the time of our separation seem shorter 
 and less sad.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BLIND BETTY'S BLESSING. 
 
 THERE were so many home duties 
 for me during the twelve months of 
 my proposed absence from Cathey, that I 
 could not go very often to see little Judy, 
 but so long as she was doing well, both in 
 mind and body, I was fully satisfied. 
 Only I felt the need to break away now 
 and then from the luxuries and frivolities 
 of life which surrounded me, and to go up 
 into the pure and simple atmosphere of 
 Mrs. Turner's attic rooms, and hear the 
 freshness of a little child's earnest lan- 
 guage, and the eloquent preaching of
 
 J 114 JIMMY DON. 
 
 blind Betty, which always touched ray 
 soul. 
 
 There were two dormer-windows in Ju- 
 dy's parlor, and she had filled one of them 
 with the plants that were most beautiful 
 and vigorous. It seemed as if the sun re- 
 joiced to draw forth their full splendor, 
 for the leaves were large and green, and 
 the blossoms as fragrant and lovely a 
 could be. Heliotrope and mignonnette, 
 and purple and white stocks mingled 
 their sweet odors, and shed a delicious 
 perfume through the room. Jake had 
 made a large cage and hung it outside the 
 window, and here the little sparrows had 
 made their home, and chirped merrily all 
 the day. It had an ever open door, and 
 they went in and out at pleasure, and ate 
 of the crumbs that my little girl scattered
 
 BLIND BETTY'S BLESSING. 115 
 
 upon the window-sill. Upon the roof of 
 an adjoining house that jutted out a little 
 below, tame pigeons billed and cooed, and 
 looked with side-long glances at the spar- 
 rows and the flowers and the little girl 
 who was prettier than all. Opposite the 
 windows, lifted against the sky, was a gilt 
 cross pointing heavenward from a tall 
 church spire. Sometimes a dove perched 
 upon it to rest, and smooth his ruffled 
 feathers after a long and weary flight. 
 Ah, it is only upon the cross of our dear 
 Lord that any of us can have sweet rest 
 
 and peace ! We may roam the world over 
 
 on fluttering wing, but we must come 
 
 back to the one true support ; and then 
 we may sit and sing in the sunlight, con- 
 tented and blest. 
 Betty had not the same pleasant view,
 
 116 JIMMY DON. * 
 
 but then it "did not matter, since her eyes 
 turned inward. I think her soul was a 
 rare and beautiful garden, where the rose 
 of Sharon and the lily of the valley grew. 
 She seemed always to see the bloom, and 
 to breath the fragrance. The Lord God 
 walks almost visibly to the righteous blind. 
 He makes up in a two-fold measure to 
 them for what they lose of the beauty of 
 earth. I am sure of this, because I have 
 often heard them talk of such visions as 
 my open eyes never beheld. They are 
 almost always happy. They put their 
 whole trust in him, and he never fails such 
 as give him all their confidence. 
 
 Betty called me into her room the day 
 before I was again going to cross the 
 ocean. She stood in the middle of the 
 floor ; the sunlight streamed around her,
 
 BLIND BETTY'S BLESSING. 117 
 
 just as it fell in a great flood in Mrs. 
 Turner's shanty the time that Judy held 
 out her baby for a warm bath. Betty 
 seemed as one glorified. I knew she was 
 going to talk to me of something that had 
 cheered her own soul, and which would 
 prove a cheering and a blessing to me 
 many a time, when life would seem to 
 lack sunshine. 
 
 " So we are to lose you to-morrow," she 
 said. " I've been thinking very much about 
 you, Miss Karlen, and about the many 
 meetings that belong to this world. It has 
 brought back the time when I had a little 
 home of my own under the big elms in the 
 green country. There was my husband 
 and little Jake. I thought that joy would 
 last for ever, and I put my whole heart in 
 it ; but God took away such a false hope,
 
 118 JIMMY DON. 
 
 and gave me something more enduring. 
 So long as all my soul was set on these 
 things, every little change made me sor- 
 rowful. Now I am looking more to the 
 end, and whatever I have to pass through 
 is but a step toward that. I do not dwell 
 upon the shadows that flit across my path- 
 way. Beyond them stands our Lord Je- 
 sus, and his brightness reaches me al- 
 ways." 
 
 Ah, I could see that ! It was like a 
 garment of light falling around her, and 
 transfiguring her. I envied her, poor and 
 sightless though she was. 
 
 She came close to me, and put her 
 hands upon my head, and said," God bless 
 you ! Remember, whatever shadows come 
 there is a fixed brightness and glory be- 
 yond. Don't let the world, the flesh, or
 
 BLIND BETTY'S BLESSING. 119 
 
 the devil get the dominion over you. 
 Serve the Master that you have long 
 served, the gracious and loving Master, 
 and you will never have much cause for 
 sadness." 
 
 That was the last time I ever saw blind 
 Betty. Before I had finished my long pil- 
 grimage abroad, she was in a fuller light 
 than earth affords, and had a clear and 
 perfect vision. 
 
 Judy and I had a long, long parting in- 
 terview, sitting on the window with the 
 moon shining in upon us ; for I chose the 
 evening in which to say good-bye to her. 
 
 " You will be grown a young woman by 
 the time I come to you again, if God 
 spares our lives," I said. " I have many 
 and many a hope for you, dear little 
 daughter, and first of all, that you may
 
 120 JIMMY DON. 
 
 be God's own child, and be very close to 
 him ; never forgetting your prayers by 
 day or by night, and always remembering 
 that his eye is upon you and sees all that 
 you do, and that his ear is open to hear 
 all that you say. I hope for none but good 
 and pleasant words to fall from your lips, 
 and none but virtuous deeds to be done by 
 your hands." 
 
 The child leaned her head upon my 
 breast, and fastened her gaze upon me. 
 " I love to hear you talk," she said ; " it is 
 beautiful here in the night with only the 
 lights in the sky. The moon will shine 
 on you and me when you are far away ; the 
 same moon, Miss Karlen, the same moon ! " 
 
 " Yes, darling, the very same. I hope 
 it will always find us doing what our Fa- 
 ther will be pleased with."
 
 BLIND BETTY'S BLESSING. 121 
 
 Then I went back to my subject. " So 
 many things that I wish you to do, little 
 Judy, before you are a grown woman. So 
 much to learn now while you are a child, 
 and have no heavy cares, things that 
 will help you by-and-by to bear the bur- 
 den of it, should it come." 
 
 "I'll study very hard," she said, "and 
 Jake will help me ; and between school 
 hours I can take some of the work off mo- 
 ther's hands. I can sew such good shirt 
 seams now, she says, and am her little 
 helper." 
 
 " That is nice ; I am sure you will be 
 her great helper by-and-by; and that you 
 will be able to keep house as neatly as 
 mother does ; and if God permits you to 
 be married, and to have a home of your 
 own, and little children, that ypu will
 
 122 JIMMY DON. 
 
 make every body happy around you, and 
 be such a blessing as a good woman alone 
 can be." 
 
 She clapped her hands merrily at the 
 thought of a house of her own, and 
 jumped down from my lap to tuck Rosa 
 snugly in the cradle, as if her housewifely 
 and motherly cares had already begun. 
 Jimmy, being a big boy, sat up a little 
 later in his high chair near us ; but the 
 time came to bid adieu both to Judy and 
 to him, and she skipped down the stairs 
 after me, holding him by one hand, and 
 telling him to say good-night to the lady 
 who made his ""pretty red dress, and gave 
 him the hat with the red feather. 
 
 Mrs. Turner and Jake met at the foot 
 of the steps, and the boy politely escorted 
 me home. I was glad of the chance to
 
 BLIND BETTY'S BLESSING. 123 
 
 put a parting gift into his hand for Judy, 
 and for each of my friends in the attic. 
 " You can buy what you please with it," I 
 said. " I can not tell what'you all want."
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 JUDY A WOMAN. 
 
 EIGHT years more of wandering in 
 strange countries ! Who can tell 
 what changes such an interval must bring 
 to the old, familiar scenes ! And who 
 can tell how much of good one may gather 
 as one goes from spot to spot over God's 
 beautiful world. 
 
 I found my Cathey in the city of Venice. 
 She was out with her father and Nurse 
 Hannah in a gondola, and before she 
 knew that I had arrived, I had stepped 
 into another boat, and had told the gondo- 
 lier to overtake the party that I could see,
 
 JUDY A WOMAN. 125 
 
 not far away. So we shot smoothly over 
 the smooth waters, and my gray silk scarf 
 streamed like a banner from the window, 
 and almost touched Cathey's hand as we 
 approached. She gave a little scream of 
 joy, and insisted on coming into my gon- 
 dola, and we rowed side by side to our 
 hotel, a merry and a happy party. 
 
 I can not begin to tell you where we 
 went after this, nor what we saw ; that is 
 not my purpose now. I must leave all 
 these intervening years for another time ; 
 must skip them, in fact, and come back 
 again to show you my Judy as she ap- 
 peared to me after eight years had passed, 
 and she was a woman grown. 
 
 Before I had time to go in search of her, 
 as I was walking in a pleasant avenue 
 that made the city houses seem like coun-
 
 126 JIMMY DON. 
 
 try, I heard such an eager, glad cry, 
 " Miss Karlen ! Miss Karlen ! " and who 
 do you think it was ? Why, nobody but 
 Jake ; tall and handsome, with a broad 
 open forehead, which showed a frank, pure 
 nature, and clear, earnest eyes into which 
 one loved to look. He was coming down 
 the gravel walk from a cosey cottage 
 home, and who should be close beside him 
 but my Judy, with her great, brown curls 
 tossing in the breeze, and in her arms 
 the brightest, prettiest little fellow, six 
 months old. Grandmamma Turner was 
 close behind them, and their joy at seeing 
 me was excessive. I went to sit with them 
 in the rose-covered porch of the cottage, 
 to learn all about this great transformation. 
 I stared for a minute with wondering 
 eyes. "I am sure of you three," I said.
 
 JUDY A WOMAN. 127 
 
 "Mrs. Turner, and Judy and Jake, but" 
 touching the little fat lump in my pet's 
 arms, " who in the world is this ? " 
 
 ".Who in the world could it be," said 
 grandmamma proudly, "but Jake's and 
 Judy's baby ? " 
 
 I was not a bit sorry that every thing 
 had turned out just as it did, for I knew 
 that Jake was as good a young fellow as 
 one would wish to see ; and as for my lit- 
 tle girl, she had not her equal any where, 
 and they were all so thrifty and so happy ! 
 God had been with them from the begin- 
 ning, and had led them to pleasant places. 
 It was so gracious and good of him ! 
 
 I was not content till I had the UMle 
 white dumpling in my arms, tossing him 
 and playing with him, and feasting on his 
 rosy, dimpled cheeks.
 
 128 JIMMY DON. 
 
 " And what have you named him ? " I 
 asked, giving him one more leap in the 
 air, and bringing him down to rest on my 
 knee ; and I was not at all surprised to 
 hear Judy say, " We call the little fel- 
 low ' Jimmy Don.' " 
 
 I liked that ; it showed a strong, earn- 
 est, loving nature that clings to the utter- 
 most. And they all seemed pleased be- 
 cause I was pleased, and Judy led me into 
 the house and showed me all the comfort 
 and beauty within. There was a tiny 
 greenhouse, with a little fountain gur- 
 gling, and every thing was pretty. 
 
 But what amused and delighted me 
 most of all, was the little, old, willow cra- 
 dle, with Rosa and the demijohn hugged 
 up under the patchwork quilt, as they 
 used to be in the long, long ago. 
 
 THE END.
 
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