"SHE NOW FELT THAT SHE HAD LOST HER WAY." (See page 122.)
LOST AND FOUND.
A TRUE STORY FOR THE LITTLE ONES.
Little Janet Bruce lived in a pretty village in Scotland. Near to her home was a large wood. If you were to go into it without a guide, you might go on for miles before you could find your way out of it. In some places no path is to be seen, and tall trees and creeping plants cast a deep shadow over the ground.
Janet was the only child of a poor widow. Her father had come to the village from a distant part of the country in search of work; but he had not been there long before he fell ill and died. It was a sad loss to Janet and her mother, but God, who looks in pity on the widow and fatherless, raised up for them many kind friends.
It was one evening, late in the autumn, that Janet sat at the door of her mother's cottage. She had been told never to go far away from the house, lest she should be lost. But on this evening, as she looked over the fields, she saw some bright blue flowers near a bush; and as she was very fond of making little nosegays of wild blossoms, she thought she should like to pluck them. When these were gathered, there was still further away a hedge with shining buds. "Oh," said she, "I should like to have them to put with my blue flowers." In a moment she sprang towards them, when a little bird was startled from its nest in the hedge. "What a pretty creature!" she cried. "How I should like to see where it will fly to!" And so she ran towards it, but the bird could fly much faster than she could run. Soon it flew into the wood, and Janet followed after it.
Thus we see how one wrong step leads to another. Dear children, beware of the first temptation to acts of disobedience.
It was a cool evening, and the wind blew among the trees. A little rain had begun to fall, and there were signs of a stormy night. Where had little Janet wandered to? and where could she find a shelter should there be a storm?