TRUE AS STEEL.
"OH, I can never trust anybody again!" exclaimed Effie Hart bitterly.
"I thought Lutie Brown a real friend; but I find she says one thing to my face, and another at my back." And the tearful eye and quivering lip told how keenly Effie felt the loss of her friend.
"If I could tell my daughter of a friend who would always prove true, would she choose such a one for a bosom companion?" asked Mrs. Hart.
"Yes, mamma, I would, although she might be as plain-faced as old aunt Hannah," said Effie quickly.
"And you would be true to her?" asked grandpa, putting on his glasses, and looking steadily at the little girl.
"As true as steel, grandpa. I wouldn't prove false to a real friend," she added somewhat disdainfully; "I wouldn't be so mean. But what is her name?" she asked, turning toward her mother.
"Her name is Truth," replied Mrs. Hart quickly.
Effie looked a little disappointed at this announcement, but soon said,
"I think I shall like Truth for a companion very much; for I shall know she will never deceive me, at least."
"Remember, my daughter, Truth will not like to be trifled with. She is a sensitive little lady," reminded grandpa.
"Why, grandpa, do you think I would quarrel with Truth?" asked Effie, very much astonished. "No one but those who tell lies have any difficulty with her."
Mrs. Hart and grandpa exchanged glances, but said nothing more.
The next morning Effie was late to breakfast; and then the untidy appearance of the little miss attracted the attention of Mrs. Hart.
"Effie, dear, why do you come down before brushing your hair properly?" asked her mother.
"I had no time, mamma. Martha must have rung the second bell too soon." But Effie caught grandpa's eye, and was silent.
Now, Effie knew she had failed to rise at the sound of the first bell, and that ample time would have been given her, if she had done so; yet she had unfairly laid the blame on some one else, when she alone was at fault. This fact made her very unhappy all the morning, until she resolved to be more careful of her words, and let none slip from her tongue but those strictly true.
"Effie, dear, will you put the dining room in order?" said her mother soon after. "Martha is getting dinner, and I have been called away.
Many of those things belong to you and your brother; and you will see that they are in their proper places before papa comes."
Effie was reading a very interesting story, and did not wish to leave it then.
Soon Zip, her little black kitten, which had found its way into the dining-room, began playing with a string, and it was such fun to watch its antics, that a full half-hour elapsed ere Effie thought of the work waiting to be done.
"Effie, come and see a nest of young robins!" exclaimed her brother James, putting his head in at the open door.
"Mother said I must clear up the dining-room," returned Effie regretfully. "And here are all my books
and the contents of your tool-chest to be put away before dinner."
"Put them away in a jiffy!" exclaimed Jamie. "I'll help," he added good-naturedly. And the books and other things were hustled together, and tumbled into the closet with very little ceremony.
"But mamma said they must be put in their proper places," said Effie, conscious that this was not the clearing-up intended by her mother.
"Oh, well! You can put them in apple-pie order at your leisure," observed Jamie. And, with brush and duster, the dining room was soon in a presentable condition.
As they hurried away, neither saw or thought of the quiet body lying upon the lounge in an adjoining room, an observer of all that had been said and done by the youthful couple.
Effie really thought she should be back in time to put everything in its proper place before dinner; but it was so delightful watching the mother-bird feed her young, that the bell rang just as she entered the door.
"Thank you, little daughter!" exclaimed mamma, coming into the dining-room just after Effie. "You have done your work in season, and so nicely too," she added, glancing around the room. "Haven't we a nice little housekeeper, papa?" continued Mrs. Hart, addressing her husband, and giving an account of her being called away, and leaving the care with Effie.
Nothing was more grateful to Effie's ears than the praises of father and mother; but somehow their approving words failed to make her happy this time. It was a very red face which turned away from grandpa when the old gentleman asked her after dinner how she was getting along with friend Truth.
"I don't like her one bit," pettishly returned Effie. "She isn't a pleasant friend at all."
"Tut, tut!" exclaimed grandpa.
"Then it must be your fault, my child; for Truth was never a disagreeable companion when properly treated.
Do you know, little daughter, that Truth was born in Heaven, and was sent to earth to rescue us from the father of lies? This she can never do, unless we listen to all her admonitions, and heed them too," he added thoughtfully. "Without the closest companionship with Truth in heart and life, we cannot be prepared to go back with her to those mansions into which can never enter any thing that defileth, or maketh a lie."
Effie confessed she never thought that any one could be untruthful in so many ways, until she attempted to take Truth as a bosom companion, and found she looked at the thoughts, which sent out the words, and the motives which put forth the actions.
"Just what the good Book says!" exclaimed grandpa, opening his Bible, and reading, "'Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shall make me to know wisdom.'"
Well Spring.
RISE from your dreams of the future,
Of gaining some hard-fought field,
Of storming some airy fortress,
Or bidding some giant yield:
Your future has deeds of glory,
Of honor (God grant it may)!
But your arm will never be stronger
Or the need so great as today.
Adelaide A. Proctor.