In a few days the little fellow had learned this new lesson; and though he missed his mother's arms folded tenderly about him, and the sweet smiles which mingled with the hushaby in his infant dreams, yet he grew reconciled to it at last, and became a very good baby.
Every day now he learned something new; first to say, "Wee," for Willie; then to hide his tiny head behind a handkerchief, as Margie did when she played peep a-boo with him. Another time he held out his hand for the brush, and tried to smooth Willie's hair; but instead of that he tangled the close curls most terribly, so that the poor boy could hardly keep from crying when mamma combed them out again.
One morning Sally was ill, and obliged to stay in bed. Margie wished to play with Frankie while her master, and mistress, and Willie were at prayers; but mamma said, "No; Frankie may come to prayers too."
Papa took the large Bible, and Willie stood close by his side, his little finger pointing to the verses as the reading went on; and the baby sat on his mother's knee, his eyes very wide open, to see all that was going on. He looked first at mamma, and wondered, I suppose, that she did not smile. Then he turned to papa, who was reading serious words in a solemn tone. He gazed next in Willie's face; but Willie was intent upon the book. At last he caught a glimpse of Margie's laughing eyes, and he spoke right out. The little girl had not heard one word of the reading. She had been watching Frankie, to see how he would behave; and now, before she thought where she was, she laughed aloud. But when she saw that her laughing had made Willie smile and turn from his book, and that her mistress looked very sorry, she was sorry too, and covered her blushing face with her little apron.
Frankie sat very still while they sang a pretty hymn beginning:—
"Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
Upon the Saviour's brow."
But when papa and mamma kneeled down, he tried to kneel too; and seeing that mamma shut her eyes, he closed his, but opened them again in a minute, and tried to get away to run to Willie.
"Frankie is now a year and a half old," said papa, "and must learn to be still at prayers."
"Can't he come to dinner, too, papa?" asked Willie. "I am almost sure he will be good."
"I am willing, if mamma is," said papa.