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A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 13, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 50.

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A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY.

ON a lovely day in the commencement of spring, a young lady, who had been anxiously watching for weeks by the sick-bed of her mother, went out to take a little exercise and enjoy the fresh air, for her heart was full of anxiety. After strolling some distance, she came to a rope-walk, and, being familiar with the place, she entered. At the end of the building she saw a little boy turning a large wheel. Thinking this too laborious employment for such a mere child, she said to him, as she approached, "Who sent you to this place?"
"Nobody, ma'am; I came myself."
"Do you get pay for your labor?"
"Indeed I do. I get ninepence a day."
"What do you do with the money?"
"O, mother gets it all."
"You give nothing to father, then?"
"I have no father, ma'am."
"Do you like this kind of work?"
"O, well enough, ma'am; but if I did not like it I would still do it, that I might get the money for mother."
"How long do you work in the day?"
"From nine till twelve in the morning, and from two till five in the afternoon."
"How old are you?"
"Almost nine."
"Do you get tired of turning this great wheel?"
"Yes, sometimes, ma'am."
"And what do you do then?"
"Why, ma'am, I take the other hand."
The lady gave him a piece of money.
"Is this for mother, ma'am?" asked the well-pleased urchin.
"No, no; it's for yourself, because you are a good little boy."
"Thank you, kindly, ma'am," returned he smiling; "mother will be so proud and so happy."
The young lady departed, and returned home, strengthened in her devotion to duty, and instructed in true practical philosophy by the words and example of a child.
"The next time duty seems hard to me," she said to herself, "I will imitate this little boy, and take the other hand."—Selected.