it must have been most beautiful,” said tiny, “i wonder if it looked at all like that?” and she pointed to a large, bright star, which seemed quite alone in the sky, for the sun had only just set, and no other star could yet be seen near this one.
“i think it was much larger, tiny,” said johnny, who was standing close beside her. “you know if it hadn’t been quite different from the other stars, no one would have thought it was anything in particular, and the wise men said, quite positively, ‘we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.’ so you see, it must have been different.”
“yes,” said tiny, “i didn’t think of that. and how glad they must have been to see it, for they seemed perfectly certain about what it meant. they didn’t ask if he really had come, or if the people at jerusalem thought he had, but just ‘where is he?’ and then they found out right away; i don’t believe they would, if they hadn’t been so certain.”
“and just think,” said johnny, “how splendid it must have been for them to be the first ones to tell the people about it, when they got back to their ‘own country.’ that was even better than it is to be a missionary now. i wonder if any of the people they told it to laughed at them, and didn’t believe them.”
“i don’t see how they could,” said tiny. “why, you know everybody was looking for the saviour, then; and so when the wise men told them how he had been born just where the prophets had said he would be, and that they had really seen him, how could anybody not believe them?”
tiny and johnny were standing by the library window, waiting for their mother and jim, for it was sunday evening, and time for the “talk.” the lesson was about the leading of the star, and it seemed to the children unusually beautiful, although there was never any lack of interest in these talks. they were growing impatient, when jim came in sight, walking fast, as if he were afraid of being late, but they hastily agreed not to question him; for johnny had found that this always annoyed him as nothing else did. he had a keen eye for “chances” to help his less fortunate neighbors, and more than once, johnny had accidentally caught him giving time, and thought, and even money, although, industrious as he was, he seldom made more in a day than sufficed his actual needs. but he seemed so thoroughly disconcerted when anything of this kind was discovered, that johnny tried hard to resist the temptation to tease him which was offered by his sensitiveness on this point.
mrs. leslie came down a few minutes after jim arrived, and a beautiful talk followed. she had brought an old book about the holy land, which she had recently found at a second-hand book store, and it described in such good, clear language the state of affairs throughout the world, and the manners and customs of the people at the time of the birth of our saviour, that the children, deeply interested, felt as if they had never before so clearly realized it all.
and johnny spoke once more of the happiness of the wise men, in being the bearers of this great news back to their own country.
“i think it must have been much more interesting to be alive then, than it is now,” he said, with a little discontent in his voice, “for don’t you believe, mamma, that it seemed a great deal more wonderful about the saviour then, when it was all happening, than it seems now, after so many, many years?”
“perhaps it did,” said mrs. leslie, “but you know how it was when the apostles began to tell the good news. besides being disbelieved, and persecuted, and imprisoned, and banished, they had to endure something which, to some people, would be hardest of all—we are told that they were ‘mocked’; that is what you would call at school, being made fun of.”
“i never thought of that before,” said johnny, “i do believe that must have been the hardest of all! you see, a person can screw himself up to something pretty bad, like having a tooth out, or being killed, or anything; but to see a whole lot of people making faces and laughing at you—do you believe you could ever stand that, mamma?”
“it would be very hard, and yet it is part of their daily work for some of our missionaries, at this very day,” said mrs. leslie, “i have heard a missionary who had been preaching and teaching in india say that nothing delighted some of the natives more than to bait and worry a teacher until it was next to impossible for him to keep his temper. and no doubt the wise men had that very thing to contend with, when they went back to their own country. i think every one has, at some time or other. and then is, above all other times, the time to ‘let our light so shine before men that they may glorify our father which is in heaven.’ when people see that the power of god is a power, it nearly always makes some impression on them. so here is a chance for every one to ‘make manifest,’ and how beautiful the blessing is! ‘that which doth make manifest is light.’ we are allowed to carry to others the light of the world.”
this was the end of the talk, for that time, and it made more impression upon jim and johnny than it did upon tiny, for jim, as we have said, carried his sensitiveness too far, often—as in the case of little taffy—allowing it to hinder him from asking for help for others, when he had come to the end of his own ability, but not the needs of the case, and when such help would have been most gladly and efficiently given; as for johnny, he was foolishly alive to ridicule, and many of the slips of temper which he afterwards lamented were due solely to this cause. a jeering laugh or a mocking speech always had power to make his face flush and his hands clinch, and the effect did not always stop there—he often said things for which he was bitterly sorry as soon as the rush of angry feeling was past. and somehow it seemed to him that the attacks upon his temper always took place when he was unusually off his guard, and open to them.
the effect of this talk upon jim was very marked. he began, from that time, shyly to take mrs. leslie into his confidence, whenever he felt that she could help him, and he schooled himself to bear, without wincing, any and all allusions to the various and unobtrusive acts of kindness which he was able to perform. and he very soon had the encouragement of finding his usefulness greatly increased, while he still had the satisfaction of doing many things which were known only to himself and those whom he helped. to his firm and resolute character, the plan of the campaign was more than half the battle, while johnny, who was naturally more heedless and forgetful, found great difficulty in keeping his good resolutions where he could find them in a hurry.
he had, for the time being, quite forgotten this talk about the wise men, when, one day during the following week, as he was playing with the boys at recess, a little girl strayed into the playground, with a basket of apples and cakes, hoping to sell some of her wares to the schoolboys. johnny remembered her at once, for she was one of the many people whom mrs. leslie had helped and befriended; she had found the poor child in great trouble and destitution, a few months before, and had put her to board with an old woman who only demanded a very moderate amount of work in payment for the care which she gave the little girl.
katy employed her spare time in trying to sell whatever she could pick up most cheaply, whenever she had a few cents at her command; matches, sometimes, and what tiny called “dreadful” cakes of soap; very thick china buttons, blunt pins, or, when she had not enough even for these investments, a few apples or oranges, and unpleasant-looking cakes.
she was a solemn and anxious-looking child, and although, through mrs. leslie’s care and teaching, her clothes were nearly always whole and clean, they had a look of not belonging to her, and tiny and johnny, while they pitied her very much, and were always willing to help her in any way they could, did not admire her.
it had never before occurred to her to visit the playground with her basket, a fact over which johnny had secretly rejoiced, and it was with a feeling of dismay quite beyond the occasion that he saw her come in at the gate. she did not see him, just at first, and he was attacked, as he afterward told tiny, with a mean desire to “cut and run.” before he could make up his mind to do this, however, she recognized him, and a smile broke over her solemn countenance.
“why!” she said, in the drawl which always “aggravated” johnny, “i didn’t know you went to school here, johnny leslie! i’m right glad i came in. don’t you want to buy an apple? and don’t some of these other boys want to? they’re real nice—i tried one.”
“i haven’t any money here, katy,” said johnny, briefly, “and i don’t believe the other boys have, either. and i wouldn’t come here, again, if i were you; it’s not a good place to sell things at all—at least, some things,” he added hastily, as he remembered how a basketful of pop-corn candy had vanished in that very yard, a few days before.
katy’s face grew solemn again, and she was turning to go, with the meekness which, to johnny, was another of her offences. but a few of the boys who were standing near, and who had heard the conversation, saw how anxious johnny was to get rid of her, and one of them called out mockingly, loud enough to be heard all over the playground,—
“boys! here’s a young lady friend of johnny leslie’s, with some wittles to sell! his friends in this crowd ought to patronize her!”
the mischief was done, now; the boys flocked around katy, and being, most of them, good-natured fellows, as boys go, they said nothing unmannerly to her, but they contrived, in their politely worded remarks, which she did not in the least understand, to sting johnny to the verge of desperation. and yet, when he thought it over afterwards, nothing had been said which was really worth minding; it was the manner, not the matter, and the mocking laughter, which had roused him.
“i think your friends are real nice, johnny leslie,” said katy, as she turned, with her empty basket, and her hand full of small coins, to leave the yard, “and i won’t come back, if you don’t like me to, but i don’t see why you don’t!” and she walked dejectedly away.
but before she reached the gate, johnny had fought his battle—and won it. he sprang after her, and held open the gate, as he would have done for his mother, saying, loud enough for every one to hear him,—
“i’m glad you’ve had such good luck, katy! come back every day, if you like, and you wait for me here after school, and i’ll show you a first-rate place to buy things, where the man won’t cheat you!”
she thanked him all too profusely, as she went slowly through the gate, and then he turned, feeling that his face was fiery red, to receive the volley which he fully expected, and had braced himself to bear. but it was not exactly the sort of volley for which he was prepared.
“hurrah for johnny leslie!” called one of the little boys; the others caught it up with a deafening cheer, and an unusual amount of “tiger,” and johnny saw that they were quite in earnest.
and then came back to his mind once more the words which had so often come there, since he had read the quaint and beautiful story of “the pilgrim’s progress from this world to a better,”—“the lions were chained.”
the fact was, several of the boys had heard about katy through tiny and their sisters, but they could not, or rather would not, resist the temptation to tease johnny, when they saw the foolish annoyance which her coming had caused him. it has often been noticed how a word, or even a look, will turn the tide, in affairs like this, and even in much larger ones, and johnny’s bold championship of katy had done this at once.
it was a good day for her when she invaded the playground, for johnny kept his word about showing her where to buy, and, knowing as he did the things which would be most likely to sell well, the result was that, after a few lessons, poor little katy, who was slow rather than stupid, began to show real judgment in her purchases. she was always modest and quiet in her manner to the boys, and the result of this was that their chaffing never passed the bounds of harmless fun. they called her “the daughter of the regiment,” and threatened her with dire penalties, should she not always come “first and foremost” to their playground with her new stock.
“i’ve often thought, tiny,” said johnny, long afterward, when katy had made and saved enough to buy a second-hand counter, have shelves put in the front room of the two which she and the old woman occupied, and start a small but promising business. “i’ve often thought of how it would have been if i had cut and run. and it seems to me that the ‘way of escape’—about temptations, you know—is right straight ahead!”
