{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33811/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33811","id":"gutenberg_33811","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33811","summary":null,"tags":["Aunts -- Juvenile fiction","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Novels","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life -- Juvenile fiction","Families -- Juvenile fiction","Love -- Juvenile fiction","Siblings -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive/American\nLibraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: MRS. LESLIE'S BIBLE PEARLS.]\n\n\n\n\nThe Pearl of Love:\n\nOR,\n\nJOSEY'S GIFT.\n\n_BY MRS. MADELINE LESLIE._\n\n\"Love is the fulfilling of the law.\"--ROM. 13:10.\n\nBOSTON:\n\nPUBLISHED BY A. F. GRAVES,\n\n20 CORNHILL.\n\nEntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by\n\nREV. A. B. BAKER,\n\nIn the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of\nMassachusetts.\n\n\nTo\n\nFRANK RANDALL, RUTH, MAY, RANDOLPH MORGAN,\nAND JAMES WALDINGFIELD,\n\nCHILDREN OF\n\nD. F. APPLETON, Esq., New York,\n\nTHESE \"BIBLE PEARLS\" ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED\nBY THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n                        Page\n\nJOSEY'S RIDE              11\n\nCHAPTER. II.\n\nTHE TWO NURSES            21\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE WRONG BABY            33\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nJOSEY'S TEMPER            48\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nJOSEY'S CHRISTMAS         61\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE BURNED BABY           74\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nJOSEY'S SORROW            86\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nJOSEY'S GIFT             100\n\n\n\n\n_The Pearl of Love._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nJOSEY'S RIDE.\n\n\n\"Please mamma, may I go to ride with you?\" asked little red-cheeked\nJosey Codman.\n\nMamma was tying on baby's silk hood, and did not answer for a minute.\n\n\"I would let him go,\" urged Aunt Fanny. \"He can sit between us; and he\nwont be a bit of trouble.\"\n\nJosey clapped his hands.\n\n\"I'm going, mamma, isn't I?\"\n\n\"Can Nurse get him ready quick enough?\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed! Run, Josey, for your new hat. Nurse bring his sack from\nthe hall. It's fortunate I curled his hair before dinner. It's all dry\nnow; come, pet, stand still while I baste in a clean ruffle.\"\n\nBaby Emma didn't like so many wrappings around her neck, and began to\nthrow back her head in an alarming manner. Mamma gave her to Nurse to\ncarry about, while she put on her bonnet. Then the carriage drove to the\ndoor. Papa had to be called from his study. Nurse scrabbled on her hat\nand shawl, and at last they were all seated in the back, and the driver\ncracked his whip, calling out to his horses,--\n\n\"Go on!\"\n\n\"Why!\" said papa, \"I didn't know Josey was going.\"\n\n\"But I am. Isn't I, mamma?\" cried the boy, his eyes dancing.\n\n\"I should think so,\" answered mamma, laughing. \"I don't know as it was\nbest, we shall be out late.\"\n\n\"Oh, we'll manage somehow,\" said Aunt Fanny, \"Josey is such a good boy!\"\n\n\"Nurse,\" began mamma, \"you must be careful what Josey eats for supper;\nonly bread and butter, with a cup of milk.\"\n\n\"Yes, ma'am.\"\n\n\"And if he grows sleepy before service is through, take off his jacket\nand let him go to sleep. You will be in Mrs. Reed's nursery.\"\n\n\"Yes, ma'am, where we were before.\"\n\n\"Baby's asleep, so soon,\" said Aunt Fanny, watching the infant's head\nnodding over Nurse's shoulder. \"Lay her down. She'll sleep all the way,\nand be as good as a kitten.\"\n\n\"Don't let her soil her new cloak, Nurse,\" said mamma. \"Fanny, the cloak\nlooks beautifully! handsomer than I thought it would.\"\n\n\"I always liked that color,\" answered Aunt Fanny, \"it's real bird of\nparadise. Untie baby's hood; now Nurse, she'll sleep easy.\"\n\nMamma and aunty were on the back seat, with Josey tucked in between\nthem; papa and Nurse, opposite. Papa turned from one to another as they\nspoke; but he did not listen to a word that was said. There was to be a\ngreat meeting in the Tabernacle Church that evening, and he was to\npreach. As they rode along, his mind was fixed on what he was going to\nsay.\n\nMr. and Mrs. Codman did not always live near the great city where they\nwere now going. Their home was more than a thousand miles away; but they\nhad come here to reside for a year or two, and had rented a pretty\ncottage nearly ten miles from town.\n\nOn three sides of the cottage, there was a piazza, with pillars all\ncovered with woodbine and honeysuckle. In the barn at the end of the\ngarden, was a horse which the clergymen used for his daily ride to the\nPost Office. When they went to town, they always hired a hack from the\nstable.\n\nMr. Codman was a very learned man, as well as a faithful, devout\nminister. Everybody loved him, for he loved everybody, but especially\nlittle children. If he were riding through the village, he always liked\nto watch the boys at their play, or the little girls trundling their\nhoops. Whenever there was a cry of distress he was off from his horse\nin a minute, ready to assist the child who had fallen, or to relieve any\none of their troubles.\n\nThe children of course loved him. Many a time in the early spring, as he\ncame out of his gate in the morning, he would find a group of them\nstanding there to say \"good morning!\" or to offer him a bunch of\nviolets.\n\nSometimes papa took Josey on the saddle before him; and then how the\nchildren would shout with glee, and press up to speak a word to the\npretty boy.\n\nMr. Codman was not the minister of the village, though he sometimes\npreached for the clergyman; but he always improved every opportunity to\ntell those around him of the love of God, who sent his only Son into the\nworld to save sinners.\n\n[Illustration: JESSEY LEARNING TO RIDE. VOL. I.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE TWO NURSES.\n\n\nAt seven o'clock Mr. and Mrs. Codman and Fanny started for church. Dr.\nand Mrs. Reed went, too; and another clergyman with his wife, by the\nname of Matthews. Mrs. Matthews had been invited to tea, and had brought\nher baby, a little girl, nearly the same age as Mrs. Codman's.\n\nSoon after they were gone, Ann perceived that Josey was sleepy, and\neasily persuaded him to lie down on the bed. Then the two nurses, having\nhad their supper, began to chat, while they tended the babies.\n\n\"Look now!\" said Ann, dancing Miss Emma on her lap, \"the two of them\nlook as much alike as a pair of kittens.\"\n\n\"Except,\" answered Martin, \"that your Miss has black eyes; and mine,\nblue.\"\n\n\"That's true for ye, but then their mouths are the same, and sure enough\nI thought before, that no baby could equal ours for a small mouth.\"\n\nIn the mean time Emma and Rose cooed and coquetted with each other in\nthe very best of spirits, until a late hour, when they both went quietly\nto sleep.\n\n\"Feth and a pretty sight they're making,\" suggested Ann, pointing with\nsome pride to the bed; the two little ones lying side by side, and\nMaster Josey across the foot, with his rosy cheek resting on his hand.\n\n\"It looks for all the world like a baby asylum,\" was Martin's laughing\nreply.\n\n\"I wonder what Mr. Codman is preaching about,\" she added; \"I would like\nto be within sound of his voice, it's a treat to hear him.\"\n\n\"I heard Miss Fanny saying to her sister that the text was to be from\nEphesians 4:32. 'Be ye kind one to another.' You know it's before the\n'Young Men's Society,' he's preaching to-night.\"\n\n\"And fine words they are to put before any society. I'll ask Mistress to\ntell me about it to-morrow. Sure, I've read in some good book, that\nkindness to every one would just turn this wicked world into a heaven,\nlike where the angels live.\"\n\n\"I believe it would,\" replied Ann, \"for if everybody loved, sure there'd\nbe no stealing, nor lying, nor any such wickedness. And then, why, there\nwould be no prisons, nor jails. Indeed, Martin, I think it must be the\nfinest text in the whole Bible.\"\n\n\"Because,\" added Martin, in an approving tone, \"the greatest kindness of\nall was, when the Lord of glory himself loved us poor sinners so well\nthat he couldn't bear to see us ruined forever, and so he gave himself\nto die on the cross in our stead.\"\n\n\"Would we have had to die there, if he hadn't?\" asked Ann, with a look\nof awe.\n\n\"Not just there, maybe; but we would have had no hope of being happy,\nbecause there was God with a sword over our heads; and he couldn't take\nit away, till somebody, equal to the whole world of people, suffered the\npenalty in our stead.\"\n\n\"I see it now, I've heard Master explain, that Jesus being the Son of\nGod, his blood was more precious than the blood of all the human race;\nand if all the sins of all the people were washed in it, there still\nwould be enough to save millions on millions more.\"\n\n\"Well,\" murmured Martin, after a pause, \"we can't be kind enough to\npeople after such an example as the Lord has set us.\"\n\nThe great clock on a neighboring church struck nine.\n\n\"They'll soon be home now,\" she added, springing to her feet, \"I'll just\nbring my baby's cloak and hood from the closet, and have them ready.\"\n\n\"It's a fine night for a ride,\" said Ann, bringing Josey's coat and\ncap, and laying them on a chair. \"Baby slept all the way into town, and\nI expect she'll sleep going home.\"\n\n\"You have to go nearly twice as far as we do. It's scarce six miles to\nEaston Parsonage; but then Mr. Matthews is a very careful driver;\nMistress would like to ride faster than he drives; I wish we were going\nthe same way!\"\n\nEvery moment footsteps were listened for; but not till half-past nine\ndid a carriage drive to the door. Then Aunt Fanny and Mrs. Reed ran up\nin a great hurry.\n\n\"Come, Ann,\" said Miss Fanny, hurriedly, \"we're late and must be off in\na minute. You put on your sack, and I'll dress Josey. Mrs. Reed has\noffered to put on baby's cloak and hood; and, Martin, you had better get\non your bonnet, for the other carriage, with Mrs. Matthews and Mrs.\nCodman in it, will be here directly.\"\n\nThe two nurses ran to the back room, where they had taken off their\nouter garments, and in less than five minutes, Miss Fanny appeared with\nJosey asleep on her shoulder, and Nurse behind her with baby Emma,\nclosely wrapped in her cloak and hood.\n\nMr. Codman cut short his wife's \"good byes,\" by saying,--\n\n\"It will be midnight, wife, before we reach home;\" so, with hasty\nadieux, they jumped into the carriage and drove off.\n\nMr. and Mrs. Matthews followed directly, turning down the opposite\nstreet, Martin screening her baby's face from the night air by a thin\nveil.\n\nIt was a bright, beautiful evening, but rather cool. Mr. Codman held\nJosey close to his breast; and his wife, with a warning to Ann to keep\nEmma well covered, began to talk earnestly about the sermon.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE WRONG BABY.\n\n\nIn this way they rode on for four miles. \"Almost half way,\" Fanny\nobserved, as they passed the five corners; \"I suppose Mr. and Mrs.\nMatthews are home by this time.\"\n\nJust then, Josey awoke with a start and cry of alarm, which roused his\nsister, and made her open her eyes. Fanny, who sat opposite, pulled\nback her hood to quiet her, when, with a shriek, mamma cried out,--\n\n\"We've got the wrong baby! Oh, Nurse, you made a mistake! This is Mrs.\nMatthews' Rose. Husband, stop the driver, quick!\"\n\n\"Are you sure?\" asked papa, who had been taking a short nap.\n\n\"Sure? Can't I tell my own baby? Emma has black eyes; and, look for\nyourself, is this my baby's dress?\"\n\n\"I see no difference, my dear.\"\n\n\"But, Frederick, it's awful, and every minute we're going farther away\nfrom our little darling.\"\n\n\"Well, my dear, if you are positive, we must turn back, but it is a\ngreat pity such a mistake was made.\"\n\n\"Mrs. Reed dressed both the babies,\" explained Aunt Fanny, trying to\nrecover her senses, after the fright.\n\n\"And I only carried down the one she gave me,\" argued Ann, choking back\na sob. \"I saw it was our baby's cloak, and I never mistrusted the right\none wasn't inside of it.\"\n\nIt was a difficult matter to make the driver comprehend that he was\nexpected to go eight or ten extra miles to change babies.\n\n\"Why isn't one as good as t'other?\" he asked, grumbling. \"The horses 'll\nnever go through with it, and at this time of night it's no use.\"\n\nBut Mr. Codman, who was now wide awake, and well understood the\ndistress which agitated his wife, without the squeeze she was giving his\nhand, and her continual \"Oh dear! Oh, my poor baby!\" now said, firmly,--\n\n\"We wont waste words about it. We must go to Easton parsonage as quickly\nas possible.\"\n\n\"I'll take the short cut, then, across the moor. The moon is so bright I\ncan keep out of the ruts.\"\n\n\"But then we lose the chance of seeing them. They may have found out\nthe mistake earlier, and be on the way to meet us. Drive on!\"\n\nBut driver still demurred, muttering that it was a bad job, and he\ncouldn't be going over the ground four times without good pay.\n\n\"How much do you want for yourself?\" asked the gentleman. \"I hire the\ncarriage by the month.\"\n\n\"A couple of dollars is little enough.\"\n\n\"I'll give you three; now drive on.\"\n\nThe carriage door shut with a snap, and they started off, driver lashing\nhis horses with the whip.\n\n\"We must look out that they don't pass us,\" said the clergyman.\n\n\"I'll keep watch,\" responded Aunt Fanny, decidedly. \"I wonder what Josey\nwould say if he were awake?\"\n\n\"If our driver had been a father,\" exclaimed Mrs. Codman, \"he wouldn't\nhave asked why one wouldn't do as well as t'other.\"\n\n\"Hem!\" exclaimed Aunt Fanny, indignantly. \"'Twouldn't have hurt the man\nto have heard your sermon to-night, brother. I don't think he's very\nkind, any way.\"\n\n\"He was probably at the ale-house, and had taken enough to make him\ncross.\"\n\n\"Had he heard you describe how God rewards our love to others by peace\nin our own hearts, he would have been more kind.\"\n\n\"Well, Fanny, be as tender in your thoughts as you can. It is hard for\nthe man to lose three or four hours of his sleep.\"\n\n\"O, you always are ready to find excuses!\" she answered, laughing.\n\n\"I ought to practise what I preach, oughtn't I?\" He looked archly in her\nface.\n\n\"I hope Emma wont wake,\" said mamma, anxiously. \"Little Rosa sleeps as\nquietly as a kitten. How strange that none of us noticed the change.\"\n\n\"It's no joke,\" said Fanny, though she could not help laughing.\n\nThey were going over a rough part of the road, and Josey, after growing\nrestless, suddenly started up.\n\n\"Are we most home?\" he asked in a sleepy tone.\n\n\"We'll get there by and by,\" answered his father, cheerfully.\n\n\"I'm afraid we shall have to go all the way to Mr. Matthews',\" said\nmamma. \"Next time, I'll dress baby myself.'\n\n\"Miss Fanny sent me to put on my bonnet,\" urged nurse. \"She said you\nwere in a hurry.\"\n\n\"No one is to blame, nurse,\" said her kind master. \"It is simply\nunfortunate.\"\n\nMile after mile they drove on, only meeting an occasional carriage,\nuntil they came in sight of Easton Parsonage. Here the lights were all\nout, except one in the chamber; and there persons could be seen moving\nabout.\n\nA vigorous knock soon brought Mr. Matthews to the door. \"I heard\nwheels,\" he said, \"and more than half suspected who it was. We made a\nsad mistake.\"\n\nMartin came down, her face very red, bringing baby Emma, and Ann gladly\ngave up her charge.\n\nMrs. Matthews soon appeared with marks of tears.\n\n\"Wasn't it dreadful!\" she exclaimed, with a fresh burst of grief. \"I\nwanted to go right back. We were only two miles from the city when we\nfound out we had brought away the wrong baby; but Mr. Matthews said no,\nwe must keep her till morning. He thought it very careless of us, but\"--\n\n\"There was no carelessness about it,\" urged Fanny, indignantly. \"Mrs.\nReed wanted to help; and she put on the wrong cloaks, that was all.\nThere was never a thought with us of not coming back. Brother wouldn't\nhave hesitated if it had been twice as far. We knew you'd want your\nbaby, and we wanted ours.\"\n\n\"I thought you would understand that we should keep your little Miss\ntill morning,\" explained Mr. Matthews.\n\n\"But mothers have such tender hearts,\" added Mr. Codman, \"and we ought\nto thank God for it. Come, wife, we must be off. We have fourteen miles\nto go, and it's almost twelve o'clock.\"\n\n\"There's a difference in ministers as in other folks,\" whispered Martin\naside to Ann. \"Mr. Matthews scolded well, and wouldn't hear of going\nback; but your master did as he would be done by.\"\n\n\"Just like his text,\" returned Ann. \"'Be ye kind one to another.'\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nJOSEY'S TEMPER.\n\n\nIt was a little past two when the weary family alighted at their own\ndoor. For the last few miles, the moon had been clouded; the horses were\ntired; and they had to drive with care.\n\n\"Tell Cook we'll have a late breakfast,\" said mamma, taking her babe\nwith a kiss. \"Now, Nurse, go and get all the sleep you can.\"\n\nThe following morning, Josey couldn't remember coming home at all. He\nopened his large hazel eyes very wide, as Aunt Fanny told him what had\nhappened.\n\n\"I'm glad we found her; isn't you?\" he asked, again and again.\n\nBaby Emma received a great many extra kisses that day, and the next, and\nwhenever mamma thought about the mistake. But one week after another\npassed on, Mr. Codman preaching once in a while, until Spring came\nagain.\n\nWhen Emma was a year and a half old, she was full of mischief; and\nJosey, who was now five, sometimes got out of patience. He was just\nlearning to read, and liked nothing better than to sit on Aunt Fanny's\nknee and hear her tell stories. Sometimes Emma, finding no one\nwatching, would get to mamma's basket and overturn all the spools, or\ntangle the thread, and then Aunt Fanny had to start up and attend to\nher, and stop the stories very short.\n\nOr baby would climb on a chair to her brother's shelf and pull his nice\nbooks to the floor. Once, indeed, he came in from a walk, and found\nmamma busy with a caller, and Emma, who had been left there while Nurse\nwent an errand, doing a great deal of mischief. She had a new book in\nher hand, and just as he found her she was tearing out three or four\nleaves, laughing and shouting with delight. Josey ran to take his book\naway; but it was too late. His Christmas present was spoiled. Poor boy!\nhe cried as if his heart would break, and was very angry with his\nsister, more so than his mamma had ever seen him. He struck her little\nfat hand, exclaiming,--\n\n\"You are naughty! naughty! and I don't love you any more.\"\n\nThe visitor rose to go, and Mrs. Codman did not detain her. She was so\ngrieved at her little boy's actions, she could scarcely command her\nvoice to say \"good-bye.\" She rung the bell for Ann, and then, taking\nJosey by the hand, led him away to his own chamber.\n\nHe glanced up into his mamma's face and saw it was very white, and he\nbegan to be sorry for his bad temper.\n\n\"Oh, Josey!\" she commenced at last, seating him on her knee, \"do you\nknow how you've grieved mamma?\" and then the tears began to roll down\nher cheeks.\n\n\"Emma tore my best book,\" he said, softly.\n\n\"Emma is only a baby, Joseph, and didn't know any better. If you hadn't\nstruck her, papa would have bought you another one. But, Josey, you\ngave way to your anger, and told your darling little sister that you\ndidn't love her.\"\n\n\"I think she's too big to tear my pictures out,\" he said, sighing.\n\n\"She must be taught to let your things alone,\" answered mamma, \"and you\nmust remember to put them out of her way; but all the pictures in the\nworld wouldn't excuse you for treating her so unkindly. Don't you\nremember that pretty verse you learned last Sunday? 'Be kindly\naffectioned one to another, in honor preferring one another.' Papa\nexplained to you what it Meant.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry, mamma; but I want my pretty book.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry, too.\"\n\nShe said these words in such a sad tone that Joseph softened at once. He\nthrew his arms around her neck, exclaiming,--\n\n\"Mamma, I'm going to be good and love God like little Samuel in the\ntemple.\"\n\nShe held him close to her breast, whispering, \"'He who loveth God,\nloveth his brother also.' This is what St. John tells us. 'If a man say,\nI love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.'\"\n\n\"Oh, mamma! I'm real sorry.\"\n\n\"And he says, too, 'My little children, let us not love in word, neither\nin tongue, but in deed and in truth.'\"\n\n\"What does that mean, mamma, to love _in deed_?\"\n\n\"It means that it does no good merely to say 'I love you, I love God;'\nbut we must show it by our actions.\"\n\n\"How could I show Emma, mamma, when she was tearing my book?\"\n\n\"Think for yourself, Josey.\"\n\nHe looked very serious, his cheeks growing more and more red, but at\nlast he said, softly,--\n\n\"I might have taken the book away, and put it up high; and I might\nthink, 'She is so little, she don't know any better;' and after I said,\n'naughty, naughty!' as you and papa do, then I could kiss her.\"\n\n\"Yes, my own darling, that would have been Christ-like, loving, kind,\nand forgiving; and your heart, instead of burning with anger toward your\nprecious sister, would have been filled with the sweetest emotion, such\nas is implied by the words, 'Be kindly affectioned one to another.'\"\n\n\"May I go and kiss Emma now, mamma?\"\n\n\"Yes, darling; and I hope you will learn how pleasant love is,\nespecially between brothers and sisters.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nJOSEY'S CHRISTMAS.\n\n\nSpring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, had come and gone; and now Josey was\nseven years old, and Emma was baby no longer. There was a tiny girl in\nthe cradle who was named Grace. The family had returned to their own\nhome; Mr. Codman preached to his old people.\n\nAunt Fanny was still with them, though she had agreed to go on a mission\nto India with a gentleman now studying for the ministry. She was the\nsame ardent girl as before, loving her brother's family, and devoted to\ntheir comfort.\n\nJoseph had from his birth been much in her care and was a prime\nfavorite. She had grieved with his parents at the unkindness and\nimpatience he had sometimes shown his sister; and she rejoiced with\nthem that he was becoming so kind and affectionate.\n\nThough Joseph was so young, yet his parents hoped he had become a lamb\nof the Good Shepherd. He had faults, as all children have; but he tried\nto correct them. His face sometimes flushed when Emma teased him or\nmeddled with his books, of which he was very careful; but he never\nstruck her now, and seldom was angry but a minute.\n\n\"I try to think,\" he said to his mamma, \"that she don't know better, and\nthat she's almost always good; and if I wait a minute and remember about\nChrist forgiving me, then I feel happy right away.\"\n\nJosey showed in one way that he was a Christian child. He loved\neverybody, and tried to be good to all.\n\nAmong the poor people belonging to his father's church, no one was more\nwelcome to their humble cottages than little Josey. He always had a\npleasant word for each, and often spent hours of his play-time in\nreading to the old women of the parish.\n\nAt Christmas, his greatest treat, and one that he spent weeks in\npreparing for, was to take his box sled (the one he drew his sister in,)\nand fill it with the presents he had prepared for his friends.\n\n\"Though they are poor,\" he said, over and over, \"I love them dearly,\nand I want to have them know it.\" So he spent all his pocket-money in\nbuying what mamma and Aunt Fanny thought would be useful.\n\nA pair of mittens for one poor orphan, a flannel shirt for a rheumatic\nold man, a pair of glasses for another, and plenty of pies, which he had\nhired cook to make. He hired her, because he wanted to feel that the\ngifts were his and not his mother's.\n\nDo you wonder every body, rich and poor, loved him, and that, wherever\nhe went, blessings were showered on his head?\n\nI don't mean those worthless words that so many beggars use without\nmeaning: \"A thousand blessings on your head, Miss.\"\n\nOh, no! But real, heart-felt prayers that God would be his Father and\nFriend forever.\n\nDo you suppose Josey was a cross, sulky boy? Can you imagine him wearing\na frown? or with his lips in an ugly pout?\n\nNo, indeed! It is not possible for one who cultivates such love for all\naround him; for one who tries in this way to imitate the example of his\nblessed Saviour to be unhappy or cross. Those children who think only of\nthemselves, who are selfish and greedy, who never heed the blessed\nwords, \"Be ye kind one to another,\" are the persons to wear sour faces\nand pouting lips.\n\nDon't you remember what the good Book says, \"Her ways are ways of\npleasantness and all her paths are peace.\" That means Wisdom's ways, and\none of these paths is love; love to God and love to those around us.\n\nYou can well imagine that Josey's father and mother, and aunt and nurse,\nwere delighted in seeing him growing up to be a good boy; and each of\nthem were ready to assist him in correcting his faults.\n\nHe was neat and orderly; keeping his little treasures arranged nicely\nin the drawers mamma gave him, and his clothes each on their own hooks\nin his closet. But Joseph was not always prompt in attention to his\nduties. He liked so much to hear the talk at table or at the fireside,\nthat it was a real trial to him to leave the pleasant company, and the\ndelightful things that were being said; and he often lingered when he\nought to have been on his way to school.\n\nAunt Fanny used sometimes, by an anxious glance toward the clock, to\nremind him of his duty, for she hated to have her favorite reproved; or\nhis mamma would say gently, \"You'll be late again, Josey.\" If the\nconversation was very interesting, he would only push back his chair a\nlittle and wait for papa to say,--\n\n\"My son, go this moment.\"\n\nOne day his mamma had a long talk with him on the subject of\nprocrastination, after which he did much better.\n\nShe explained to him that the meaning of the command, \"Honor thy father\nand thy mother,\" was not only that a child must obey when told to \"go\"\nor \"stay;\" but he must strive in every thing to act as would please\nthem. He must honor them by anticipating their wishes, by acting when\nthey were absent as he knew they would approve if they were present.\n\nShe told him that he could please the Lord Jesus by a dutiful attention\nto their desires, such as, always to be in season for school, or\npunctual to any engagement, just as much as by being honest and\ntruthful. The dear Saviour would look into his heart and know he was\ntrying to do right out of love for him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE BURNED BABY.\n\n\nThe winter after Josey was eight years old, his parents received a visit\nfrom their dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Matthews and little Rose. Two\ninfant brothers had died since they last met, and Rose was still their\nonly daughter.\n\nEmma was now in her fifth year, and Rose only a few weeks younger.\n\nMany a time during the visit, did the mothers and Aunt Fanny talk over\nthe mistake made by Mrs. Reed, at which no one was more sorry than Mrs.\nReed herself. Many a time they laughed over the question of the cross\ndriver:\n\n\"Why wont one do as well as t'other?\"\n\nThe man had married afterward, and when a tiny babe was put into his\narms, and he was told it was his own, he understood well why every\nfather and mother love their own children best.\n\nAunt Fanny was soon going to leave the country. They had all been busy\nfor months in getting her clothes ready for the voyage, and a missionary\nsociety in the village were making shirts, etc., for her friend, Mr.\nBarnard.\n\nOne afternoon, she walked to the village to give some directions that\nhad been requested, and took the opportunity to make her last calls on\nsome of her poor families.\n\nThe tea hour passed, and she did not return. Her brother did not know\nwhere she was gone, so they were obliged to wait patiently for her\nreturn, though Josey grew every moment more anxious.\n\nAt last it was within half an hour of his bedtime,--Emma and Rose had\nlong before gone to their cribs,--when Aunt Fanny's welcome voice was\nheard.\n\nShe looked very pale, and all knew at once that something must have\nhappened. She motioned Josey to her side, and laid her head on his\nshoulder as he stood by. Presently she exclaimed,--\n\n\"I have seen a dreadful sight! Oh, I never can get it out of my mind!\nThe screams and shrieks, I hear them yet!\"\n\n\"What is it? do tell us,\" urged her sister.\n\n\"You know little Juley Lane, what a passionate child she has always\nbeen. I told Mrs. Lane the last time I was there, it wasn't safe to\nleave her with the baby. She didn't seem to have any love for him. Now\nshe's killed him.\"\n\nJosey gave a start and sob of horror, while Mrs. Codman exclaimed,--\n\n\"Shocking! terrible! how did it happen?\"\n\n\"I was making calls,\" added Fanny, with a groan, \"and I met Mrs. Lane.\nShe was hurrying with a basket of clean clothes, and told me she'd been\nobliged to leave Juley with her old mother and the baby. I told her I\nwas going to call, which relieved her anxiety, and she said she'd be\nhome in a short time.\n\n\"Long before I reached the house I heard awful groans, and on opening\nthe door, what a sight was before me.\n\n\"Mrs. Lane, thinking the baby would be safer, had tied him into the high\nchair, and set him in front of the stove. Julia had one of her fits of\nanger and pushed him over. His poor hands and face fell upon the hot\niron and burned to a crisp. When I went in, the old woman had crawled on\nher hands and feet, to the place, and was trying, with her poor deformed\nfingers, to release him. Juley stood by, frightened and crying, but not\nable to do anything.\n\n\"I flew to untie him from his chair, which was in a bright blaze, and\nthen rushed to the door to send for a doctor. Then the mother came. Oh,\ndear! I wouldn't go through such a scene again for a kingdom. I don't\nbelieve the poor child was conscious; the doctor thought not; but such a\nsight! You wouldn't know him from a piece of burnt wood; and there he\nlay, only showing he was alive by a feeble groan.\n\n\"Mrs. Lane shrieked and tore her hair, and when Juley pulled her dress,\nI was afraid she'd kill her, too. So I got a neighbor to carry her off,\nscreaming and fighting. The old woman hasn't been across the room\nbefore by herself for a year, and now lies speechless on the bed; I\ndon't believe she'll live till morning.\"\n\nMr. Codman put on his hat directly and hurried away to the distressed\nfamily, while his wife took off Fanny's hat, and brought her a cup of\ntea, begging her to try and eat a piece of toast.\n\n\"You'll be sick, dear, if you don't,\" she urged. \"The shock has been too\nmuch for you.\"\n\n\"I can't hold the cup;\" sobbed Fanny, giving way at last; and then she\nheld up her poor burned hands and arms.\n\n\"Oh! oh dear!\" screamed her sister.\n\n\"My poor, poor girl!\" exclaimed Mrs. Matthews; and then they and Josey\nand Nurse all cried together.\n\nIn less than half an hour Mr. Codman returned, and the doctor with him.\n\nThe old woman had breathed her last. Fanny had saved her from burning\nto death, by tearing off her blazing clothes at the risk of her own\nlife. The neighbors all said Miss Fanny was an angel. If it had not been\nfor her presence of mind, the house would have been burned, and the\nwidow have lost everything.\n\nThe doctor bound up the poor, blistered hands and arms, talking\ncheerfully as he did so, but, his eyes grew moist as he told them\nafterward what she had done.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nJOSEY'S SORROW.\n\n\nIn the hurry and excitement, no one thought of little Josey. It was not\ntill Aunt Fanny was sinking to sleep from the effects of the doctor's\nmedicine that his mother found him sobbing by himself in the corner.\n\n\"What will become of Juley, mamma? will she have to be put into\nprison?\"\n\n\"Don't think about Juley to-night, dear,\" she answered, soothingly.\n\"You'll cry yourself sick. We must all thank God, who saved our dear\nAunt Fanny's life. She was so good and thoughtful, and did not once stop\non account of the pain in her hands, but threw water on the flames, and\nalmost lifted the old woman into bed.\"\n\n\"Oh, mamma! I am glad about that; but I can't help thinking, if you\nhadn't taught me to love my sister, and not give way to temper, I might\nhave--I mean, dear, darling Emma might have been burned to death. Do you\nthink God has forgiven me, mamma, for striking her as I used to?\"\n\n\"Yes, Josey, I am sure He has. You're a kind, affectionate brother now,\nteaching your sister to be patient and obliging.\"\n\nShe saw the shock had been too much for him. He trembled excessively as\nhe tried to unbutton his jacket.\n\n\"I'll talk with you all about it to-morrow,\" she said; \"try to say your\nprayers now, and go to sleep.\"\n\n\"But, mamma, are you sure Aunt Fanny will get well? She did groan so,\nwhen the doctor touched her arm.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes! I hope she'll be better in a few days. Burns are always very\npainful at first.\"\n\n\"Well, Aunt Fanny is a good missionary. Isn't she? She was kind one to\nanother.\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed! she always is that; just like your father, you know.\"\n\nMr. Codman wrote Mr. Barnard the same evening, and he came the day but\none after the poor baby was burned, just as Mr. and Mrs. Codman were\nstarting to attend the funeral of the old lady and child.\n\nFanny was dressed and sitting in an easy chair, both arms bandaged to\nthe elbows and laid out on a pillow. She looked very white, except where\na fever spot burned on each cheek. Mrs. Matthews sat by, talking in a\ncheerful tone, while Rose and Emma played with their dolls in the corner\nof the chamber.\n\nWith a gentle knock Mrs. Codman peeped in, asking, in a mysterious\nvoice,--\n\n\"Are you ready for visitors?\" Then, without waiting for an answer, she\nbeckoned the young missionary to come forward.\n\nHe flew to her side, and, not daring to trust his voice, instantly\nkissed her cheek.\n\n\"This is Mrs. Matthews,\" Mrs. Codman said. \"She will be happy to tell\nyou what a heroine your Fanny has been. I must run away, or I shall be\nlate.\"\n\nMrs. Matthews repeated some of the particulars of the dreadful accident,\nand then, seeing how hard it was for the young man to control his\nfeelings, rose, and calling the children, left the room with them.\n\n\"My own Fanny,\" he said, putting his hand softly on her head, \"I wish I\ncould bear this dreadful pain for you. How could you expose your\nprecious life? What should I have done if you too\"--\n\nHe stopped suddenly, and walked to the window, but soon returned at the\nsound of her voice, saying,--\n\n\"James, you are making quite too much of what I did. Any one would have\ndone the same. I could never look you in the face if I had not tried to\nrelieve such terrible suffering. But Oh, it was dreadful! I cannot\nforget it.\"\n\nTears filled her eyes, and he tenderly wiped them away.\n\n\"I cannot sleep,\" she went on, \"except under the influence of anodynes.\nThe shrieks and groans ring in my ears.\"\n\n\"Your nervous system has had a shock, and it will take time to recover.\nYou know I have been studying a little medicine, and I shall take you\nfor my first patient. I prescribe perfect rest, and that you see no one\nbut me.\"\n\nFanny laughed. \"Josey will have something to say to that,\" she began.\n\"He has been the most unwearied little nurse, and his face has grown\nvery sad.\"\n\n\"Dear little fellow! I shall love him better than ever.\"\n\nMr. Barnard staid two days, and then Fanny was obliged to insist that he\nshould leave her, as there were not quite two months before they were to\nsail, and she knew that every moment of his time was filled with\nengagements.\n\nHer burns were less painful, and it would still be weeks before she\ncould help herself at all; but she was surrounded with friends who\ndelighted in doing anything for her comfort.\n\nShe bade him good-bye, with a tear and a smile, not expecting to see him\nagain till a day or two before their marriage.\n\nHe looked back to watch her sitting so white and patient, without one\nmurmuring word, and thanked God that she was so soon to be his own\nloving, faithful wife.\n\nJosey rejoiced that now he could return to his labor of love and feed\nhis beloved aunt; for she insisted that he did it more skilfully than\nany of them.\n\nThose were precious hours to the dear boy, when, with the tray before\nhim and a spoon in his hand, he ministered to her wants, meantime\ntelling her all the thoughts of his little heart. Years after he\nremembered the words she had said, and tried to improve by them.\n\nHe was now fully determined to be a missionary and go out to tell the\nheathen about Christ, as his aunt Fanny was going. He began at once to\ngather all the tracts and primers he could find, and packed them in an\nold valise.\n\nHis mother found them there some months later; and explained to him that\nthe poor Hindoos could not read English.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nJOSEY'S GIFT.\n\n\nAunt Fanny's burns were now nearly healed. For a week she had been\nwithout the bandages, though the wounds were still tender. Her trunks\nwere mostly packed, and many tokens of love placed there by beloved\nfriends.\n\nWhen with her brother's family the young missionary always wore a\ncheerful smile; but there were hours when she wept at the thought of\nparting from those who were so dear. Yet not for one instant did she\nregret the choice of her life. She was going to tell the poor benighted\nheathen of the love of Jesus,--to try and persuade them to throw away\ntheir idols, and worship the living and true God.\n\nAs she thought of all this, and realized what a privilege it was to save\nsouls from eternal death, her whole heart glowed with a desire to be\namong those for whom she was to labor.\n\nMr. and Mrs. Matthews had been travelling for some weeks, but had now\nreturned to be in season for the wedding.\n\nOn the Sabbath night previous, the family were seated in the library,\nwhen mamma noticed that Josey was not present. She could not account for\nthis, because, when out of school, he was scarcely a moment away from\nhis aunt's side. She went through several rooms in search of him, and\nat last found him in a closet by himself, sobbing as if his heart would\nbreak.\n\n\"Why must Aunt Fanny go?\" he sobbed, \"I can't bear it,--I can't bear not\nto see her any longer!\"\n\n\"My darling,\" said mamma, taking his hand, and leading him to her own\nchamber, \"do you know what Aunt Fanny is going for?\"\n\n\"Yes, mamma, but couldn't somebody else do it?\" She stopped a moment\nand then said,--\n\n\"Josey, there was a time, thousands of years ago, when man had sinned,\nand there was no hope nor joy for him in the world; there was only the\ncertainty that his soul must be miserable forever. Then our blessed\nSaviour said, 'I pity these poor people and shall try to save them.' He\nleft his glorious throne, by the side of his Father, and came here to\ngive himself to death.\n\n\"The love and pity of God the Father was so great, that he sent his\nbeloved Son, that whosoever believeth on him shall have everlasting\nlife.\n\n\"The poor Hindoos know nothing of the true God. They have not the\nprecious Bible, as we have, to tell them that they need not throw their\nbabies to the crocodiles,--they need not tear and wound their own flesh,\nnor throw themselves under the wheels of the cruel Juggernaut. Your aunt\nFanny and uncle James are going to tell them, they need do nothing of\nall this. They desire to say to those poor, ignorant men and women and\nchildren, that Christ's love for them is so great that if they will but\ncome and accept of his salvation, it shall be freely theirs. She wants\nto tell the poor, weary pilgrims, who have been walking hundreds of\nmiles with stones in their shoes, that the blessed Jesus will accept\nthem without money, without price, without any of these painful\njourneys,--that they have only to lay their load of sin upon him, and he\nwill carry it for them.\"\n\nJosey's tears ceased to flow, and he listened with almost breathless\ninterest.\n\n\"Do you want to keep Aunt Fanny from telling them this?\" mamma asked.\n\"Do you want them to go on worshipping those senseless idols, which can\nneither see, nor hear, nor understand?\"\n\nWith a great sob Josey answered,\n\n\"No, mamma, I love her dearly, dearly; but I'll let Jesus have her.\nHe'll know then how I love him.\"\n\nWith a gush of tears, she folded him to her heart. When they were more\ncalm, she urged him to return to the parlor.\n\n\"Pretty soon I will,\" he said softly, \"And oh, mamma, if you'll please\nlet me sit up an hour later every night till she--I mean, till we're all\nalone. Now I'm going to write her a letter.\"\n\nMy little reader, would you like to read it, and see how our dear Josey\nshowed his love to his Saviour? how he tried to obey the rule, \"My\nlittle children let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed\nand in truth?\" It was this:\n\n\n     \"My dear, darling Aunt Fanny:\n\n     \"I've been thinking a great deal about you, and once I said\n     I couldn't let you go away; but I'm willing now. I know I\n     shall miss you dreadfully. And it makes me cry to think how\n     I shall want to hear you pray by my bed, every night; but\n     I'll tell you why I'm willing. You know I'm trying to be a\n     Christian child, and I do hope the dear Saviour has pardoned\n     my sins; so I want to show Him that I really thank Him for\n     it, and to-night, I said to myself, 'I have nothing to give\n     Jesus, to show him my love, but my dear, dear aunty. I do\n     hope it will show the heathen a little, that I love them,\n     and want to be kind to them. When you get there, will you\n     please tell them a little boy gave his aunt to the Saviour,\n     so that they may learn the way to heaven.\n\n     \"When I am a man, I hope I shall be a missionary, too; and\n     perhaps then God will let me see you and Uncle James again.\n\n                                        \"Your little nephew,\n\n                                        \"JOSEY CODMAN.\"\n\n\n\n\nMRS. LESLIE'S\n\nBIBLE PEARLS.\n\n\n_Series for Boys._\n\n    VOL. I. THE PEARL OF LOVE.\n\n     \"  II.  \"    \"   \"  CHARITY.\n\n     \"  III. \"    \"   \"  OBEDIENCE.\n\n     \"  IV.  \"    \"   \"  PENITENCE.\n\n     \"  V.   \"    \"   \"  HOPE.\n\n     \"  VI.  \"    \"   \"  PATIENCE.\n\n\n_Series for Girls._\n\n\n    VOL. I. THE PEARL OF FAITH.\n\n     \"  II.  \"    \"   \"  DILIGENCE.\n\n     \"  III. \"    \"   \"  MEEKNESS.\n\n     \"  IV.  \"    \"   \"  FORGIVENESS.\n\n     \"  V.   \"    \"   \"  HOPE.\n\n     \"  VI.  \"    \"   \"  CONTENTMENT.","title":"The Pearl of Love; or, Josey's Gift","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":7626}