Great God, our King!
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HEROES OF PEACE
(Adapted for Children, Nine to Fourteen Years.)
1. THE BOY HERO OF HOLLAND
Once there was a good boy who had a kind-hearted mother. One afternoon she said: “Here, Peter, are some cakes I want you to take to the poor old blind man who is very ill, and who lives a mile and a half away from town. If you go quickly and do not stop to play, you will be home before it is dark.” Peter took the cakes to the poor old blind man, who said, “You are a kind-hearted boy; thank your mother for me.” Light-hearted because he had made the blind man happy, Peter was walking home when suddenly he noticed a little stream of water trickling through the great bank on the side of the road. This was in Holland, where much of the land is below the level of the sea, and where dikes are built by the people to keep back the sea. Every boy in Holland knows the danger of even a small leak in the dike. Peter understood at once that this tiny stream would soon make a large hole and the whole city would be flooded. In a moment he saw what he must do. He climbed down the side of the dike and thrust his chubby little hand and finger into the tiny hole and stopped the flowing of the water. Then he cried out for help, but no one heard him; no one came to help. It grew dark, and cold; he was hungry; his arm ached and it began to grow stiff and numb. He shouted again: “O mother! mother!” But his mother thought Peter must be spending the night with the blind man, and did not know of his danger. Peter thought how warm and cozy all at home were sleeping in their beds, and he said to himself, “I will not let them be drowned!” So that good boy stayed there all night long, holding back the water. Early next morning, a minister on his way to visit the sick, heard a groan, saw the boy, and called out to him, “What is the matter, my boy? Are you hurt? Why are you sitting there?” When Peter told him what he had done, the minister said, “I will hold my hand there while you run quickly to the town and get help.” Very soon men came and repaired the leak in the dike, but all knew that Peter, by his courage and faithfulness, had saved the town of Haarlem that night.
2. THE GERMAN PATRIOT AND THE BARLEY-FIELDS
Once there was a terrible battle in Germany, and thousands of soldiers were scattered over the country. A captain who had many men and horses to feed was told by his colonel to get food from the farmers near-by. The captain walked for some time through the broad valley, and at last knocked at the door of a small cottage. A man, old and lame and leaning on a stick, opened the door. “Good morning,” said the captain. “Will you please show me a field where my soldiers can cut grain for our army? We cannot pay for it.” The old man led the soldiers through the valley for about a mile, when they saw a field of rich barley waving in the breeze.
“That is just what we want,” said the captain. “No, not yet,” said the old man; “follow me a little farther.” After some time they came to a second field of barley. The soldiers got off their horses, cut the grain, tied the sheaves, and rode away with them. Then the captain said to the old man, “Why did you make us come so far? The first field of barley was better than this one.” “That is true, sir,” answered the old man, “but it was not mine!”—Adapted from “Ethics for Children” by E. L. Cabot.