» 3 T H E TORCH OF REASON, SIL V E R T O N , OREGON, T H U R SD A Y , S E P T E M B E R 29, 1898. | be sure and put it on the chair I had arranged at iny Itedside. Then From s paj**r read at the Annual Con forgetting to tell him to “ make me vention of the Canadian Secular a good little boy for C h rist’s s a k e ,” Union.] I am going to relate to you h<»w I I shut th e bedroom d o o r (to keep was converted from the heathen god out the c a t), jum ped in to bed and worship of my fathers by a little fell fast asleep. On aw’aking th»* n»*xt m orning, to white mou«e. I was just «¿even years- old at the tim e, and was residing ; my intense disgust I found th at the with a spinster au n t at Brighton, mouse and cage had not been de- England. My parents were in In d ia, liveied according to order! H ighly 1 my father being a colonel in a M ad indignant I sprang out of bed ami ras regim ent, and it was necessary went straight to my a u n t’s room. for our health and education th a t I woke th a t good lady up and in we childern should he placed under formed her th a t I was not g«»ing 'o the care of the said au n t in Englam l. say any more prayer!-! She, half She was a second m other to us, and asleep, asked me “ W h y ? ” Then I brought us up as little C hristians. told her hew I had a*ked God for a I learned from her how C hrist had mouse, and had got left. She said, died to save us because Adam had with a sm ile she tried to conceal: “ T hat may have been yonr fault, stolen an apple, and I remember feeling a t the tim e rath er asham ed my dear boy. If you were not a l of my forefather, Adam, not be ways such a naughty, naughty boy, cause he had robbed an orchard, you m ight have got your mouse. but for the greater fault of getting Try and be a good boy for a whole nabbed in the act! I learned also week and you may perhaps get th a t God was the all-giver, and th at one.” I kissed her kind face and prayer would win from him all that promised to try and be good. And we m ight desire. I thought w hat so I did, boys (and ladies), I tried lucky people we are to be possessed my darndest; it was the toughest of th is all-giver, from whom we can job I had ever tackled. But I suc obtain an y th in g we m ay require by ceeded, for just th at d ly week I a few words of prayer. And, when awoke to find the cage am i the repeating the Lord’s prayer, on long coveted mouse from D a n t’s- coming to the petition, “ Give us lane inside of it, on the chair by Ju m ping out of bed th is day our d aily bread,” I seldom my bedside. forgot to add, “ W ith lots of jam , I knelt down and returned thanks please, dear Lord! ” and, as the jam to the all-giver, telling him from never failed (I knew where it was the bottom of my grateful, glad young heart th a t he was out a« d kept) I th o u g h t it was all O. K. Now, all the boys in our neigh out the best god g“ ing, better th an borhood with whom I was acq u ain t any three gods put together, and ed possessed a p**t mouse of some th a t I would stick to him through I went down lo hue or o th e r— brown, black, white thick and thin. or pie-bald. I alone was mouseless. D ane’s-lane th a t dav * to make sure This threw me in the shade and it was the verv * mouse I had wished gave them a superiority over me i for. 1 entered the store and found which was gall unto my young the well-known cage gone. I a-ked sp irit; and I was so desperate th a t the mouse m an who had taken it I offered to tight the biggest boy in away. He replied, “ A lady bought “ Do you know our crowd for his mouse against my it y esterd ay .” peg-top and a bag of m arbles. He where th a t la.lv l i v e s ? ” “ Oh, ves; t«X)k the offer — and walked off, we sent it to No. 11 P ortland Place” It was she leaving me still mouseless, and with — my a u n t’s address! a couple of black eyes in lieu of top who had rew arded my good con duct, she who had answered my and m arbles. She was the all-giver as A few days after this I went down prayer. to No. 9, D ane’s-lane, where lived far as I was concerned. There was My faith in God was the m ouse m erchant, and tried to no other! induce him to let me have a certain shaken, and the absurd st«»ri<-s in white mouse and cage on credit, the old testam ent th at I read later prom ising to pay for ih>* sam e as ou shook it more and more, until, soon as I became a m an, but he de at the age of ten, I was a confirmed clined to «leal with me except on a Agnostic. cash basis. Then I be. an to lose A S unday school teacher was heart, till one day the idea struck me to m ake a direct appeal to the talk in g to her class of the necessity all-giver, and th a t night, kneeling of a divine friend, both in life and at my cot-side, the appeal was death. F in ally she said: “ C harlie, made. Leaving out the L ord’s if you were about to die, what prayer and sticking strictly to busi would you w ant most of a n y th in g ? ’’ ness, I told the Lord 1 w anted a And C harlie replied, with practical mouse in the worst way, and wisdom: “ A doctor.” He was recently m atched, how (th in k in g ther« m ight possibly be a scarcity of mice ju st then in hea ever, by another sm all boy. “Jo h n ven) directed him to No. 9 D ane’s- n y ,” asked his teacher, “ what m ust lane, B righton, explained the sort we do before our sins can be for of m ouse I w anted, and inform ed g iv en ?” “ S in,” replied Jo h n n y .—[Inves him th a t the cost of mouse and cage wo uld be 2s. 6d., and told him to tigator. Converted by a Mouse. e • • • • •• T 1 h 11V• viz SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ MZ SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ Liberal University SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ SIZ w SIZ T H E O N LY S C H O O L SIZ OF T H E K IN D . 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