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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 • • •
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