I have a little class in the afternoon on my piazza for a Sunday lesson, eight little boys and one golden-haired, blue-eyed little girl. At first, I had some difficulty in getting them to come, for they always have such a good time playing that it seemed to them a great waste of the golden hours to come to Sunday-school.
Some of them said they were willing to come and sing hymns, but they did not want any lesson. However, I found one little fellow who wanted the lesson, so I told him to invite any one who wanted the lesson to come with him at 4.30 o'clock the next Sunday afternoon, but no one else.
Punctually at the hour three little boys and one little girl arrived, while the other boys in the village played up and down before my gate most ostentatiously, so that little heads could not help turning to see what was going on, and in the midst of one of the Commandments, I heard a squeaky little voice, "I wonder what those fellows are laughing at!" for they had got up a great burst out in the road, quite a stage laugh.
She picked her usual thirty-five pounds alone.
However, we got through comfortably and went into the sitting-room to the piano, and I asked each one to choose a hymn which we sang. At the second hymn one of the boys from the road joined us, but I seemed unconscious of his presence, and when the singing was over, I invited the first four into the dining-room and handed them some little sponge cakes.
The next Sunday there was a full attendance and has been ever since. The lesson has to be carefully selected, as there are four denominations represented, so I take the Lambeth platform and teach the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. After that I tell them Bible stories, beginning with the thrilling narration of the Creation and the Garden of Eden.
When I first told how Eve was tempted to eat the fatal apple, and Adam too was tempted, and they were driven out from that beautiful spot to earn their living in the sweat of their brows, the interest was breathless, and one little fellow asked:—
"Miss Patience, what would have happened if they had never eaten the apple? Would they have stayed in the garden?"