“But wait,” said the fairy. “You asked me for a gift. Do you still want it? Do you still want to follow her?”
“To follow means study, and sacrifice, and temptations conquered, and sympathy, and all sorts of hard things, doesn’t it? I never thought about it. But I love Mrs. Fuller and I still want to lead girls—I still want the letters and I still want to be like her. Please, Fairy of Good Works, put me in the way and I will go back to school and begin to get ready.”
Then the little lady smiled as she waved her wand over the head of the girl. “Your life may be much more sunny than hers, dear. Not all must have the same things to overcome. But whatever you meet in the way, you must struggle against it and come out stronger because you have struggled. Can you see away off there in the distance the hands of girls—oh, so many of them—eagerly reached out for help? They are ‘your girls.’ And here is the way. Above there is one who helps and 113 I am here though you may not see me. Push forward or the girls will have no helper. Good-by and good luck to you.”
But as Gladys reached out to detain her, her hat fell to the ground and she found herself sitting against the tree. In her hand was the picture of Mrs. Fuller and her girls. Long she looked at the picture. Then she said to herself,
“I never knew the way was so long or so hard to be like you but if just one girl can love me some day as I love you, then I shall be glad I have walked in the way. I am ready to try and I hope I can win.”
AN OLD, OLD STORY
It was a dark and rainy day when about the inn-fire, close to the great caravan way that led through Canaan, in the land of Palestine, a group of camel-drivers and travelers were gathered. They looked very different from what they do to-day, for nearly four thousand years have passed since then. But they were all huddled together listening to stories and songs.
In the group there were men from Egypt; there were men from Babylon, the great city far to the East; there were men from the land of Canaan; and then there were some wandering nomads who had lately come from the East and so were called by the Canaanites “Hebrews,” which means, “People from the Other Side.” Most of these men were shepherds, but they loved to meet with the camel-drivers and learn of the customs and habits of the people of other lands. ’Twas a strange group of men sitting about the little fire.