CHAPTER IV.
FRANKIE'S BROTHER WILLIE.
It was a long time before Ponto became reconciled to see Frankie in his jumper. He barked loud and long, as if he was afraid his little friend would hurt himself, tied up in so strange a manner. But baby grew every day more fond of this exercise; and as soon as he saw his mother take the jacket, he would spring so that she could hardly hold him still enough to fasten the buttons tightly to the wooden frame. One day, when he and his mamma were alone in the nursery, he grew very sleepy, and at last his little head nodded down, down, quite upon his breast. Mamma laughed softly, and she waited a minute to see what he would do. Presently he awoke a little, and touched his toes to the floor to make the jumper spring, and get himself to sleep again. Then she took him in her arms, and after loosing the buttons to his jacket, laid him in his cradle for a nice nap.
One day Willie came running into the room when mamma was singing to the baby, who was not well. He was a good boy, and knew that he must not make a noise; so he took a cricket, and sat down by her side. He loved to hear the gentle lullaby; but now he wondered why mamma looked so sober. Pretty soon he saw one, two, three, tears drop right upon Frankie's head. Her face was always so full of smiles that he knew not what to make of it. She got up to put the baby in the cradle, and then she saw Willie looking at her as if he wondered what this meant.
"Come here, my dear," she said softly, laying his head on her shoulder. "Mamma has been praying the good God for you and your little brother."
"Are you afraid Frankie is going to die, as sister did?" asked Willie; "I saw some tears on your cheeks."
"No, dear," said mamma. "I was thinking how kind God was to give me two such dear boys. Then I looked at Frankie's hands, such pretty little fingers and thumbs, and I asked God never to let them do that which was naughty, never to allow them to strike or take what did not belong to them."
Willie gazed a moment at his hands; I suppose he was trying to think whether they had been naughty hands or good hands. Presently he said, "Toes can't do wrong, I think, mamma, as hands can."
"Ah, yes, my dear," said his mother. "Only yesterday I knew a little boy whose feet were very naughty, and walked away where he had been forbidden to go."
Willie's face grew very red. "I forgot about that," he said in a whisper.
"Do you remember," asked his mother, "the lady who visited here with her little girl, and how she used to kick and stamp her feet when she could not do exactly as she wished? Were those good feet, and do you think her heavenly Father was pleased to see how she was using them?"
"O, no, indeed, mamma! But I guess God liked it when I used my feet to carry James Wells's ball home, because he would have lost it if I had not given it to him."
"Yes, dear, your feet and your hands, too, were good then; and beside that, there was a kind feeling in your heart, which made you wish to carry the ball to the poor boy."
"I'm glad I did it," said Willie, smiling in his mother's face. "Did you think any thing about Frankie's mouth?"
"Yes, indeed, I prayed that my darling baby might use his sweet little mouth to praise God, and that never, no, never might a naughty word come out of it. O, how dreadful it is to think that little boys or little girls should use the gifts of the good God to disobey his holy laws!"