A LITTLE LIFT. .
"How much does a little lift, lift up the heart?"
DOWN in the field that lay just a -little way from the big farm-house, one bright summer afternoon, were four little girls gathering flowers, the big white daisies, with their yellow centers; the pretty pink clover blossoms, filled with sweet honey; and the bright, golden buttercups, -flowers growing wild, to be sure, but none the less beautiful for that.
The sun shone down bright and warm; but the cool wind kept it from being hot; and every little flower nodded its head, and bent gracefully back and forth, as it passed. In the pasture beyond, a flock of sheep nibbled the soft grass, and over the children's heads flew the free little birds, flying far away, and then back again, because they had all the beautiful blue sky for their home.
"Let's make a daisy-wreath for teacher," said Susie Brown. "She looked so tired and sad today! Perhaps somethin's the matter. My mamma always does things for people who feel bad, and it always makes them feel better."
"I'll pick some beauties! " cried little Sadie; "see if I don't! I love teacher."
"I'll give all mine to you, Susie," said Gracie, sitting down on a whole world of daisies, with one small foot under her, and picking out the biggest of all the handful as she spoke,
"Won't teacher be glad!"
Tiny stood looking, with a thoughtful look in her soft brown eyes. Her straw hat was trimmed with flowers.
She did love them so! Every one seemed a treasure in her eyes, even though God had made so many of them that some people pass them by as common things, hardly worth a look. Tiny had such a pretty bunch in her hand! She carried them always about with her, and often went to sleep holding them tightly in her fingers.
"Teacher loves flowers," at length she said; "and she says God loves them too, and made them to make people happy. Here are mine, Susie.
"We couldn't make anything half so pretty, if we tried, could we?
Mamma says every flower is made just as pretty, even little mites of ones way up on the mountains, where people can't hardly ever go and see them; and every year God makes new ones in the same places, and always will."
The wreath grew fast as the children talked, and Susie's busy fingers wove the long stems together.
"Won't she think it's lovely?" said loving, gentle Tiny.
Up at the farmhouse in a little room sat the tired, lonely teacher.
Her life was not an easy one, forty boys and girls, big and little, to teach every day in the small, red schoolhouse a half-mile away.
The boys were often hard to manage, and some of the children were very dull scholars. She was only eighteen, and this was the first time she had ever been away from her pleasant home. She missed the dear father and mother, and her young brothers and sisters.
As she sat there sewing, she felt forsaken and discouraged; and the big tears gathered in her eyes, and fell down upon her work. Life seemed like a long hill, which would never end.
The sound of little feet was heard at the end of the hall, and merry voices drew nearer, stopping at her door. Then came a knock, and a little voice said, "Teacher, please, may we come in? We've got something for you."
She opened the door wide, and the four little girls crowded in, holding the long daisy-wreath carefully in their hands.
"See what we've made for you, teacher! We thought you felt sorry about something, and we wanted you to know that we loved you."
Now the tears fell thick and fast, but they were happy ones. Somebody loved her, then; somebody had been thinking of her even when she thought herself unloved and forgotten.
"Thank you, my darlings," she said, kissing them each in turn. "How much pains you have taken for me!
It is so pretty, and makes me very happy!"
So the sunshine came back into one heart through the love and thoughtfulness of four very little girls.
M. E. B.
in Well-Spring.
WHATSOEVER you find to do,
Do it, boys, with all your might;
Never be a little true,
Or a little in the right.
Trifles even
Lead to Heaven,
Trifles make the life of man;
So in all things,
Great or small things,
Be as thorough as you can.
