I dare say you know some little boy who can not hear or talk, or some pale little girl who can not run and play. And if God has been so very good to you as to give you what He has not seen best to give them, how you ought to thank him! And how happy you should be if you ever can lend a book or give a flower, or do any kind act for the deaf and dumb boy who never heard his mamma call him "darling!" no matter how many times she may have said it. And if you can ever be what the Bible calls "feet to the lame;" if you run to pick up that little pale girl's ball if she drops it; if you can go up stairs to get her doll when she wants it, would not that be making your own little servants useful and very happy? And if you ever happen to be where there is a blind child, would you not like to lend it your eyes now and then? And as you can not do that, you would surely love to take it by the hand and lead it about; and when you are old enough to read you would read pretty stories to it? There was once a dear little boy not much more than two years old, who became very ill. His head ached so that he did not love to play or run about. He liked to have his papa or mamma carry him round the room, and then when his poor head did not ache too hard, they would talk to him and tell him stories. One day his papa said to his mamma: "I do not believe our little Charlie will ever get well. I think that Jesus will soon take him up to heaven. And I mean to talk to him a great deal about Jesus, so that the moment he gets to heaven he will be happy to be near such a dear, kind Friend." So Charlie's papa often took his poor little boy in his arms, and let him lay his head on his shoulder, while he walked gently up and down talking about Christ. He told him all those sweet stories from the Bible, how Jesus pitied sick people, and how he cured them, and how many lame men he made to walk, and how many blind to see. So one day after he had been talking so, he had to give Charlie to his nurse while he went out for a time, and Charlie lay with his head on her shoulder, just as he had done on his papa's, till all at once he lifted it up, and said: "Mary did you know that Jesus hadn't any eyes?"
"Oh! yes, Jesus had eyes," said Mary.
"He had some once, but He gave them to a poor blind man," said Charlie.
You see Charlie was such a little boy that he thought when his papa told him that Jesus gave eyes to a blind man, that he had to give him his own.
Little Charlie is in heaven now and has been there a great many years. And he has long known more about the goodness of God than any body who still lives in this world. And if he could speak to you, he would tell you that it is better to be without eyes and hands and feet, than not to love Him who was willing rather to die than that you should not know and love Him.
CHAPTER VI.
I have spoken of some of the good things Susy's little servants could do, and I am sorry to have to say that she sometimes let them do naughty ones.
The first thing was while she was still a baby, when she raised her hand to slap her dear, kind mamma because she was going to wash her. Little babies often do so before they have been taught better. The moment Susy's hand had given the slap, she saw that her mamma's face became grave and displeased. Then Susy was sorry, and she made haste to kiss the place she had hurt, and the tears rolled down her cheeks. But pretty soon, when something else vexed her, she lifted her little hand, and was going to strike with it. Her mamma caught it in hers, and looked at it gravely, and said: "Naughty little hand!" Then Susy began to cry again and she cried so much that her mamma had to lend her her handkerchief to wipe away her tears. Almost every day the little hand was naughty in this way, but at last Susy's mamma cured it, by always tying a red mitten on it whenever it slapped. It did not like to wear a mitten at all, because then it could not pick up its toys so well.
After Susy had learned not to strike, her little hands began to grow meddlesome, that is, to touch and take things they should not have touched. One day they tore the newspaper all to pieces. Once they cut off all her hair, as far as they could reach it. One of them got into the sugar-bowl and took three lumps of sugar. And once, when they were in the country, and there was a wash-stand in the room, Susy tried to open the drawer, and pulled the wash-stand over, broke the pitcher, spilled the water, and frightened every body very much indeed.