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CHAPTER V
FRANKIE TRUSTS IN CHRIST

Although Frankie was a merry, thoughtless little fellow, his mother’s story about keeping the Sabbath made such a deep impression upon his mind that the next Sunday morning his first thought on waking was as to how he should spend the day. There seemed to be a great many hours from dawn till dark, and he sighed half aloud as he thought of the smooth crust of snow and the snow-man left unfinished the day before.

Aleck was awake, and, hearing the sigh, asked what was the matter. “Oh, I was just thinking, Aleck,” was the reply, “how long it will be before Monday. Don’t it seem ever so long to you? I wish you could go to church with mamma and me. It’s nice to hear them sing, but I get sleepy when the minister talks. Didn’t you ever go to church?”

“Yes, but I canna remember about it very well. It was before I was lame. But I am sure I wad like to gang to the kirk,” said Aleck.

“What made you lame?” Frankie asked, for the first time seeming to realize that his patient playmate had not always been a cripple.

“I fell down the stairs i’ the paper-mill where my mither was. It hurt my back some way.”

“Won’t you get well some time?” asked Frankie, earnestly.

“I dinna ken, but I’m thinkin’ ’twill nae be lang till I gang to my mither.”

“O Aleck,” and Frankie put his arms about his neck, “you mean you’re going to die, and you mustn’t. You’d have to be put way down in the ground.”

“Only my body, Frankie. My soul would be wi’ God and my mither. And oh! it is sic a bonny place, and Sunday a’ the time. Then I wi’ be free frae pain.”

“Can everybody go there, Aleck? Am I going too, and mamma, and my papa that’s way off in California?”

“Everybody who loves Jesus. If you love him he wi’ take you right there when you die. Why dinna you love him, Frankie?”

“I do want to,” was the earnest answer, “but I don’t know how. I don’t believe I love him, or I wouldn’t be so naughty.”

“The minister at the kirk wi’ tell you a’ about it, an’ your Bible an’ your mither, an’ if you pray, God wi’ help you.”

“I will try, Aleck. I’ll ask mamma about it, and I’ll listen to everything Mr. Price says, and I’ll pray too.”

Frankie was very much in earnest, and, after he was dressed, he knelt by the bedside and prayed that God would help him to be good and to love Jesus. On the way to church he talked with his mother, and she tried to lead him to the Good Shepherd. Mr. Price’s sermon was written for the lambs of the flock, and was full of encouragement to the little ones to “come to Jesus.” Frankie listened with earnest attention to that “sweet story of old, when Jesus was here among men;” his eyes filled with tears, and his heart throbbed at the story of the cruel death on the cross; and when, in conclusion, Mr. Price spoke of the tender love that the Saviour had for little children, and entreated them to give their hearts to him and love him in return, he whispered softly, “I will try to love Jesus.”

Frankie was not the only one of the children whose heart had been touched, as the next hour spent in the Sabbath School testified. The teachers sought to deepen the impression, and the Holy Spirit so wrought upon their young hearts that many went home rejoicing in a Saviour’s love.

That Sabbath was a happy day in Frankie’s home. Mrs. Western’s heart was full of a mother’s joy over her child, and Aleck shared in her happiness; as for Frankie, although he could comprehend but little, he knew that Jesus loved him, had died for him, and that he wanted the love and service of just such little children. He was but a child, and would often err, but the hand in which his was clasped was the same strong hand which upholds the best and wisest of us all.

CHAPTER VI
THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

In the spring, Frankie commenced going to school. Miss Campbell, his Sabbath School teacher, received a dozen little boys and girls at her own house. They were all nearly of an age and old playmates, so a merry little company they made—full of fun and mischief; but never had school a gentler, lovelier mistress than Miss Campbell, or Miss Ruth, as she wished the children to call her.

The first day of school was as delightful as April sunshine could make it, and Frankie’s heart seemed full of sunshine; at least it shone out of his bright eyes, as he kissed his mother, and bidding Aleck good-bye, he ran down the walk, and disappeared behind the poplars. His mother and Aleck watched till the trees hid him from view, then Mrs. Western took her sewing, and Aleck his book. He studied a little each day and always looked forward to the lesson hour with pleasure, but this morning a sigh escaped him as he turned from the out-door sunshine to the in-door work. Full of pity for the patient child, Mrs. Western sat down beside him, and smoothing his hair caressingly, said, “It is hard, my child. I wish you could go too, but your heavenly Father knows best. He does not willingly afflict you.”

The tender words brought tears to his eyes, and, resting his head wearily on his hand, he said, “I ken it is a’ for the best, I hae a guid hame. You are like my ain mither. The Laird is guid, but I am sae tired.”

“You will not feel so tired when you can be out in the air more,” replied Mrs. Western, cheerily. “Keep up your courage. You may be a strong, hearty boy yet.”

“Please tell me about heaven. It seems to me it is a bonny country, fu’ o’ singin’ birds, and wi’ the ‘green pastures and still waters;’ but I read in the Book that the streets were a’ paved wi’ gold.” The boy’s eye brightened as he spoke of heaven.

“‘Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive’ the beauties, the glories of heaven,” said Mrs. Western; “but this we know, that our Father is there, and that we shall be free from pain, and sorrow, and sin. It will not be long before we shall know for ourselves all the glories of that home.”

Thus they talked of heaven until Aleck forgot all the suffering and weariness of earth.

Frankie reached Miss Campbell’s just in time to get his seat before school commenced. Miss Campbell read a brief chapter in the Bible, and offered an earnest prayer to God, that he would help them to do right and perform all their duties faithfully. Then the lessons were assigned, and they all went to work in earnest. “‘New broom sweeps clean,’” said Mrs. Keller, grimly, as she looked in upon them in the afternoon. “Wait a week or so and your hands’ll be full. Mark my words, Ruth, those young ones will torment the life out on ye.”

Miss Ruth smiled, and looked hopefully at her little charge, as she said, “I don’t expect to escape my share of trouble, Mrs. Keller, but I do not think that much of it will come by these little ones.”

The children heard the conversation, and mentally resolved to be very good, in order to disappoint Mrs. Keller and to please Miss Ruth.

When school closed they all joined in singing one of their Sunday school hymns—“Let us walk in the Light.” Frankie lingered a little after the others went out, and going to Miss Ruth said, “Won’t you tell me, please, just what it means to walk in the light? Is it to be good?”

“To be good?” said Miss Ruth. “Yes; those who walk in the light of God’s commandments are good. But I will explain it. If you were walking alone in the woods on a night so dark that you could not see one step before you, would you not be in danger of falling? And if, in the path, there were deep holes, fallen trees, and tangled underbrush, would you dare to walk in such a place on a dark night?”

“No, ma’am,” said Frankie, promptly. “I’d take our lantern, and then I guess it wouldn’t be so very easy.”

“Not very easy, perhaps,” Miss Ruth replied, “but if in your lantern you had so bright a light that you could see your path plainly, then you could walk around a fallen trunk, separate the tangled briers, and avoid the dangerous holes. With such a journey before you, would you not be very grateful to a kind friend who would offer you such a lantern, saying, ‘Take this to be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. If you walk in this light, and trust to me, I will guide you safely through the wilderness into the pleasant land beyond, where you will need no light, and where you will forget all the rough way in which you have come, or remember it only to sing praises to Him who was your Guide and Friend.’”

“Oh, Miss Ruth,” Frankie said eagerly, “I know what you mean. The light is the Bible, and the pleasant land is heaven. Mamma once told me something like what you have said.”

“Then, Frankie,” said Miss Ruth, “remember to ‘walk in the light’ of God’s word.”

Bidding his teacher good-night, Frankie went home, his heart full of what he had heard about the “light of God,” and of resolutions to “walk in that light.”