“You must go out bright and early to-morrow morning, and see if your seeds are up,” she said.
Johnny looked at her in amazement.
“Why, mamma!” he exclaimed, “they’re only just planted! It will be several days before they show the least little nose above ground.”
“Oh!” said Mrs. Leslie, but she said nothing more, only looking into Johnny’s eyes with a little smile in hers.
He suddenly clapped his hands, exclaiming,—
“I see what you mean, mamma! I’m sowing seeds in Jim’s head, and expecting to see them come up before they’re fairly planted! But indeed, it’s harder work than digging.”
“‘Fair exchange is no robbery,’” said Mrs. Leslie, laughing at Johnny’s mournful face. And then she said, quite seriously,—
“I will give you another text, dear; one that I thought of when I was watching you plant your seeds this evening. ‘The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.’ You see, the patience is needed not only before the seeds come up, but while the plants are blossoming, and while the fruit is forming, and while it is ripening. It is not being patient just for a day, or a week, or a month, but for the whole season, for it says ‘the early and latter rain.’ Now a great many of us can have a little—a short patience, but it takes much more grace to have the long patience, and this is what my little boy must strive for.”
“I don’t think I’m naturally patient, mamma,” said Johnny, with a sigh.