THAT RAINY DAY.
THE Stautenbergers were not rich, neither were they poor. Their house was not large, neither was it very little; but there was none too much room in it.
Mrs. Stautenberger was dead; had “fallen asleep,” as the father called it, that very autumn; so when he went to the shop for his day’s work, Pauline, the eldest, had to be both sister and mother to her three sisters, and one little brother.
The teacher of the school in their district was very kind, and after her first call at the “home without a mother,” she said to Pauline, “Do not stay at home to care for baby sister; bring her with you, and we will manage in some way. I think she will be a good little girl.”
Then Pauline felt sure she should love the teacher very much. When her father came home she told him what Miss Gilbert had said, and as he wiped a tear away, he, too, thought she would be a nice teacher, and must have a good heart to be so willing to help his motherless ones.
There are a great many things I would like to tell you about this little family and their splendid teacher, but all I will have time for now, is the story of one rainy day, and what they did about it.
The storm was so hard they could none of them venture out; certainly little Gretchen must not be taken out, so there seemed a prospect for a dull, dreary, lonesome day.
The few dishes were soon put away, and all were hungry for school.