“Flora, where is your doll?”
“O, brother,” said Flora, “I left her lying on the grass.”
“Why did you leave her there?” inquired Alfred.
“I thought, brother, that maybe God would make a gourd grow over her head, like that which grew over Jonah.”
“But the sun is not as hot here as it is in Jonah’s country,” said Alfred. “Besides, she is not flesh and blood.”
Some time after this, when the weather had become cold, Alfred had a cousin, named Rupert, come to spend his vacation with him. Rupert was five years older than Alfred. He had not lived much at home with his parents. He had been almost always at a public school. Alfred had never yet been to school.
Rupert’s mother sent Flora a large doll. She said,
“O, thank you, cousin! I will name her Miriam.” “Who is Miriam?” said Rupert; for he had not heard of her.
“O, cousin,” said Flora, “Miriam was the dear little sister who watched Moses when he lay in the ark by the river’s side. And it was Miriam who played beautiful music on the timbrel, after the children of Israel had crossed the Red Sea.”
Rupert managed to amuse himself pretty well, for the first few days, with skating, and riding down hill on Alfred’s sled. But after a little time he took a cold, which confined him to the house, and he began to look around for something to read. Now there were quantities of very instructive, and very amusing books too, about the house; but there were not fairy tales enough to satisfy Rupert. So, in place of reading, he began to tell Alfred a good many of the wonderful things that he had heard or had read in his own books.