"'Oh, mamma!' said Lucy, her face still glowing with pleasure, 'I feel as if I had eaten it all myself.'
"You see, boys, that the noble-hearted little child was even more happy in giving than the poor boy was in receiving; and I want you every day of your lives to love one another, and be generous and kind one to another—to do as you would wish to be done by, for this is what little Lucy did.
"God has laid His hand of blessing on your heads; He has placed you who have no earthly parents in this pleasant home, to show you that He is your Father; and the only way in which you can prove your gratitude to Him is, to 'Love one another;' and if you love one another, you will keep His commandments. Love your teachers, and you will obey them. Love God, and you will keep His commandments.
"And now, which do you think you have had—a sermon or a story?
"'A story!' shouted some of the boys.
"'A sermon!' shouted others.
"'Both!' shouted still more."
Dear little readers, which do you think it was—a story, a sermon, or BOTH?
I asked my boys when I finished whether they thought it was a story or a sermon, and they shouted just like the other boys; some, that it was one, and some the other; but they liked it very much, and thanked me for reading it. Then I said, "I will give this little 'Standard Bearer' to any one of you: which one shall it be?"