SELF-DENIAL;
OR,
ALICE WOOD, AND HER
MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
The village school-house wassituated on a pretty green, and surrounded[2]by old elm-trees, and ata short distance and in full sightwas a candy-shop, kept by an oldwoman, whom the children calledMother Grimes. Mother Grimesknew how to make the very bestcandies and cakes that ever wereeaten, and almost every day shedisplayed in her shop-window somenew kind of cake, or some newvariety of candy, to excite the curiosityor tempt the palates of herlittle customers, who found it avery difficult matter to pass MotherGrimes's shop on their way fromschool.
One day, just after the school-bell[3]rang to give notice of the recess,a pretty little girl, by the nameof Alice Wood, was seen verybusily running about among theschool-girls and whispering to oneand another. Her object was toinduce them to remain a little whileafter the school, as she had somethingto propose to them. Alicewas a great favourite, as she was alwayswilling to put herself to anyinconvenience for the sake of givingany one else pleasure. So they allreadily consented to stay, if it wereonly to please her.
After school was out and the[4]teacher had left, Alice collectedthe girls together and told them herplan. "Girls," said she, "last nightI went to the missionary meeting,and some of you were there too.We heard a missionary speak, whohas just come back from India, andhe told us of the millions of poordegraded and ignorant people there,who have never heard of God orthe Bible, and who worship idolgods of wood and stone, and sacrificetheir children and themselvesto these dumb idols; and he toldus of millions in other countrieswho are just as ignorant and degraded,[5]besides the multitudes inour own land who know nothingof the Bible or the way of salvation.I knew all this before, to be sure,for I have often heard it; but Inever felt it as I did last night; andwhen the missionary called upon uschildren and told us that we coulddo something to save these immortalsouls, I felt, for the first time inmy life, that it was my duty, bydenying myself some gratificationsand by trying to save money inother ways, to do all that I couldto send the word of God to thosewho are perishing. Girls," said[6]she, with earnestness, "I couldhardly sleep last night, for I wasall the time going over in my mindthe different ways in which I mightearn or save something, and Ithought if all our school were tofeel as I did, and join me in this,we might collect a great many dollarsa year."
Here some of the older girls beganto whisper to each other thatthey had no money to spare, andthat their parents could not givethem money every day to send tothe heathen.
"Now stop a little while, girls,[7]if you please," said Alice, "till Ijust tell you what I want to havedone. In the first place, I thinkit will be so pleasant to form asewing Society, to meet on Saturdayafternoons, and make bags andneedle-cases and collars and manyother things to sell; and I knowmy father will be delighted to haveus put a box, with these things, inhis store. Then, while we sew, Ipropose that one reads aloud fromsome interesting