“WELL, grandma,” said a little boy, resting his elbows on the old lady’s stuffed armchair, “what have you been doing here at the window all day by yourself?”
“All I could,” answered dear grandma cheerily; “I have read a little, and prayed a good deal, and then looked out at the people. There’s one little girl, Arthur, that I have learned to watch for. She has sunny brown hair, her brown eyes have the same sunny look in them, and I wonder every day what makes her look so bright. Ah, here she comes now!”
Arthur took his elbows off the stuffed armchair and planted them on the window-sill.
“That girl, with the brown apron on?” he cried. “Why, I know that girl. That’s Susie Moore, and she has a dreadful hard time, grandma.
CALIFORNIA SCENERY. NO. 4.—The Loop presents a picturesque combination picture of natural wildness and triumphs of civil engineering. On the north side of the Tehachapi range, in Southern California, where the Southern Pacific Railway descends the mountain, is a series of nineteen tunnels between the summit and Bakersfield. Among the nineteen is one through which the north-bound train passes under the road it traveled a few moments before. The entire ride either down or up the mountain is wild, picturesque, and charming.
“I’ll ask her,” said Arthur promptly, and to grandma’s surprise he raised the window and called:— “Susie, O Susie, come up here a minute; grandma wants to see you!”
The brown eyes opened wide in surprise, but the little maid turned at once and came in.
“Grandma wants to know, Susie Moore,” exclaimed the boy, “what makes you look so bright all the time.”
“Why, I have to,” said Susie; “you see papa’s been sick a long while, and mama is tired out with nursing, and baby’s cross with her teeth, and if I didn’t be bright, who would be?”
“Yes, yes, I see,” said dear old grandma, putting her arm around this little streak of sunshine. “That’s God’s reason for things; they are, because somebody needs them. Shine on, little sun; there couldn’t be a better reason for shining than because it is dark at home.” —Selected.
