JUNO AND GEORGIE.

CHAPTER 1.


A Remarkable Phenomenon.

ONE Wednesday afternoon, Georgie, who was then about eight years old, came into a little green yard behind the house, where there was a bay window opening from the room where he slept. The window was open, but there was nobody sitting at it.

Georgie advanced until he came pretty near the window, and then called out,- " Juno '. "

Pretty soon a nice and tidy-looking colored girl, who had charge of Georgie in his plays, came to the window.

" Juno," said he, " will you go a fishing with me ? It's a splendid cloudy day for the fish to bite."

" Besides," he added, in a moment, observing that Juno hesitated, " the sun does not shine, and so you won't tan."

Juno smiled and said she would go. Juno was quite a pretty girl, and not very dark. Still she was dark enough to make her smile at the idea of there being any danger of her getting tanned in going out in the sun.

So Georgie went to get his fishing apparatus, namely : his line, his pole, and a little. box of spare hooks which he always took with him in case of an accident; for he was very apt to get his hooks caught among the logs and sticks in the deep places in the brook. He also brought his bait-box and filled it with bait, which he dug from a retired corner of the garden behind the barn.

Presently Juno appeared all dressed for a walk, and Georgie running before her, she passed across the garden and out through a back gate, where there was a path leading through the woods down toward the banks of the stream where Georgie used to go a fishing.

I cannot stop to relate all that happened during the time of the fishing. I can only say that Georgie followed the bank, putting in his line here and there wherever he thought that there was a chance for fish. The stream was in some places rapid, and in others dark and still. As usual in such streams, where it was rapid it was shallow, and where it was still it was deep. The fact that there were these deep places was the reason why Georgie was not allowed to go a fishing unless Juno went with him.

This restriction was the more necessary from the fact that the deep places were the ones which Georgie liked best to fish in, for it was in them that fish were most likely to be found. The cunning rogues used to lie in ambush in these deep places, watching from under sunken logs, or from the cavities among the stones, for any chance grasshopper or fly that might fall upon the surface of the water from the bank above.

When Georgie stopped to fish in such a place Juno used to sit upon some log, or great flat-topped stone near by, and attend to the work she had brought with her; or she would sometimes occupy herself in reading a book.

Georgie often came to her at such times to help him out of some difficulty in regard to his fishing line. Juno was accustomed to improve these opportunities to teach Georgie his Sunday-school lesson, for you must know that Georgie was rather back- ward in his studies, having been sick, so that he could not read very well, and his Sunday-school lesson usually consisted of only a single verse, and sometimes only part of averse, which was given to him by the teacher to learn during the week. Now, as Georgie could not read well enough to study his verse out of the book, Juno was obliged to teach it to him herself. The way she took to do this was very ingenious and very excellent. It was this:

She first learned the verse herself. Then she took occasion to repeat it a great many times to Georgie-only once, however, at a time-all through the first three days of the week, but without asking Georgie to repeat it after her at all. Georgie heard the verse thus so many times during the first three days that, by Thursday, the sound of the words began to be familiar to him, and almost before he was aware of it he would find him- self repeating them. Then, from that time, Juno would allow him to say them to her, and this she did so many times-though never more than once at a time, that by Saturday night the verse was perfectly familiar to him, and he could repeat it in his class the next day, without any faltering or any hesitation whatever.

Moreover, Juno, who was a very sensible girl, took care as far as possible to seize such occasions for repeating the verse as to impress the meaning of it upon Georgie's mind, and to give it a practical influence upon his conduct. How she did this you will see presently.

At the first place where Georgie commenced to fish, he got his line entangled. He brought it to Juno to be untangled.

Juno was sitting upon a green bank under a tree. As soon as Georgie gave her the line she began to untangle it, saying, at the same time, in a very distinct and deliberate manner,-

" The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated."

Georgie stood by and listened. Juno proceeded to disentangle the line, talking all the time with Georgie in a very sociable and friendly manner. At length when it was all clear, she said again, in the same distinct and deliberate manner,-

" The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated."

Georgie then took his line and went to his fishing.

In a short time he heard a voice calling to him. He knew it at once as the voice of his Cousin James. James had come to Georgie's house for the express purpose of inviting him to go a fishing, and there, finding that Georgie had gone, he followed on, and was now coming down through the woods, to find him.

Georgie was at first very glad to see James coming, and for a time the boys went along the stream fishing together very amicably. But pretty soon little disputes began to arise. Georgie complained that James's line was too near his, and prevented the fish from biting. Then presently James saw a fish, and hastily put in his line at the place, calling out to Georgie at the same time, with a loud exclamation of delight. Georgie immediately ran, himself, to the place, and James told him to go away.

Whenever the dispute in such cases began to wax warm, Juno would call out to the boys to lay down their fishing-poles and come to her. They were trained to obey such commands very promptly. Besides, they liked to obey, for Juno generally, whenever she called them thus to leave their play and come to her, took care to have something amusing to tell them, or something curious to show them.

When they came to her on this occasion, she would say,-

" First for the Sunday-school lesson. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated."

As she repeated the text, she would emphasize the words peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, in a very significant manner. Then she would add,-

" What an excellent text that is for boys to obey ! And what good times boys would have at their plays, if they would all obey it!"

Then she would show them some very curious insect or flower which she had found in the grass, or some little bird's-nest in a bush, and after talking with them a few minutes in this way, she would once more deliberately repeat the Sunday-school lesson, and then send them back to their fishing. The influence of the lesson would be felt usually, in such cases, for a considerable time ; and then when at length they began disputing, Juno would call them to her again, as before.

Things went on in this way for about an hour. At the end of that time the party came to a place where there was a bridge across the stream, and a road. The boys were now tired of fishing, and so they put up their lines and began to play about under the bridge, while Juno took her seat upon a flat stone on a bank by the road side, pretty near.

The boys concluded to play " have a battle." Their plan was to use for weapons in the combat, branches of a fir-tree, with the leaves and twigs left upon them so that they " should not hurt."

With a proper degree of judgment and discretion on the part of the combatants, this is a very harmless play, and affords very excellent exercise. But unfortunately most boys are not prepared to exercise the proper degree of judgment and discretion for such plays, and are almost sure, when they begin them, of sooner or later getting into difficulty. This was the case with Georgie and James. For a time indeed they went on playing very good-naturedly. They pursued each other around and under the bridge, and over and behind the big logs and stones, hitting each other many harmless whacks as they ran, with the leafy branches of the fir-tree.

At length, however, while in the midst of a fierce contest upon a big rock, which James had taken possession of, and called his fort, the play passed into earnest. They hit each other harder and harder, until at length Georgie losing his self-control, turned his branch and struck James with the butt end of it, and hurt him severely. James, who was considerably smaller than Georgie, screamed aloud with the pain, and throwing down his branch, went off as fast as he could go toward home, crying aloud all the way. Juno and Georgie both called to him and tried to persuade him to come back, but all in vain.

" He has left his fishing-line and all!" said Georgie.

Georgie took up carefully the pole and line which James had left, and brought it, together with his own, to the place where Juno was sitting upon the bank by the road side. On the way, however, he stopped a moment to look at two dogs that were coming down the road together, playing together as they came.

As soon as he reached the place where Juno was sitting, she closed her book and repeated the Sunday-school lesson,-

" The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated."

Georgie seemed to feel a little self-condemned as he heard these words, but he said nothing.

Juno was silent, too. She seemed to be intently engaged in looking at the two dogs, that were then playing together in the road opposite to where she sat.

" What are you looking at, Juno ?" asked Georgie. " Those two dogs ?"

" Yes," said Juno, " something very remarkable."

" I don't see anything remarkable," rejoined Georgie.

"A very remarkable phenomenon!" said Juno, as if speaking to herself, musing.

Juno did not know a great many hard words, but those that she did know she was very fond of using, in talking to Georgie.

" It is no phenomenon at all," said Georgie. " It is only two dogs playing. They are .two of the town dogs. I know them both. One is named Tramp, and the other Tiger. The big one is Tramp."

" There are those two dogs," said Juno, still as it were talking to herself, " that have got sense enough to play together by the hour, without hurting each other in the least. See how they jump over each other and tumble each other about, and make believe bite each other. But they never bite hard enough to hurt, and Tramp when he throws Tiger down, does it so gently as not even to frighten him; and then he lets Tiger tumble him down, in his turn."

Georgie watched the dogs, and saw that what Juno said was true, but he did not speak.

"And that is what I call a remarkable phenomenon," continued Juno, " that common town dogs should have sense enough to play hour after hour together, and not hurt each other in the least, while two boys can't tussel together ten minutes without getting into a quarrel."

Georgie looked confused, and did not reply.

" It is Wednesday to-day," added Juno, " and to-morrow will be the day for you to begin to say the Sunday lesson yourself. Do you think you can say it ?"

" The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated."

" Yes," replied Georgie, " I can say it now."

" Try," said Juno.

Georgie accordingly tried, and he repeated the verse very well.

"Ah!" said Juno, speaking in a tone of satisfaction and pleasure, " that shows that you have listened always attentively when I have said the verse to you, or else you would not have learned to say it so well yourself. And now we will go home."

So saying, Juno rose from her seat, and Georgie did the same, and they both together went out into the road. There Juno stopped a moment more to look at Tramp and Tiger. They were running together along a grassy path by the road side, tumbling under each other, and performing all sorts of harmless gambols by the way.

" Yes," said Juno, " yes;" nodding her head at the same time, as if to give emphasis to what she was saying. " Yes ; it certainly is very remarkable that the Spirit from above, in coming down to this world should miss the boys and pass over to the dogs."

Juno and Georgie walked on in silence for some minutes, and then Georgie looking up, said,-

"Juno?"

"Well?" said Juno, inquiringly.

" I'll tell you what I am determined upon," said Georgie.

" What is it ?" asked Juno.

" After this, whenever I play with James I will be as gentle as possible with him, and never hurt him in the least, and I'll do what he wants me to do as much as I can."

" Ah !" exclaimed Juno, in a tone of great satisfaction ; " that is right. That is learning your Sunday-school lesson to some purpose."




CHAPTER II.


In the Garden.

THERE were four persons only in Georgie's class at the Sunday-school, Georgie himself, two other boys, and a girl. Georgie was the oldest of them all, and so the teacher depended upon him to set an example of manly good behavior to the rest.

" Now, children," said the teacher, towards the close of the school one day, " the next lesson is very short, but it is very hard. It is the rest of the verse, ' Without partiality and without hypocrisy.' " " It is only four words," said Georgie.

" Five," said the teacher, " though one of them comes in twice. But they are very hard words, and so it will be quite a hard lesson." I

" I can say them," said the girl. " Without partiality and without hypocrisy."

" Ah, it is not the saying of them that is hard," said the teacher, " it is the understanding of them and the learning to obey them. It is not very easy either, to learn to say them, because you will not only have to learn these five new words, but you will have to begin at the beginning of the verse, and say the whole together."

The children had learned the first part of the verse in two lessons before, and now they were to learn the last part. The whole verse was as follows:

" The wisdom which is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."

Accordingly, during the first three days of the week, Juno took the opportunity to repeat to Georgie a great many times, in the intervals of his play, not only the last five words of the verse, but also the whole verse together, until at length Georgie's ear became very familiar with the sounds.

Juno did not attempt to explain the meaning of the words, " without partiality and without hypocrisy," at first, but waited until Georgie had come to know them perfectly. She knew very well that children took a much greater interest in learning the meaning of a word after it had become familiar to them in sound, than when it was entirely new to them.

Accordingly, for the first three days of the week she contented herself with repeating the words a great many times, but only once at each time, and always speaking the new words, " partiality and hypocrisy," very plainly, and in a very distinct manner, or, as it is commonly termed, emphasizing them strongly, so as to impress the sound of them well upon Georgie's ear, and fix it in his mind. She thought that in this way he would before long begin to feel some curiosity in respect to the meaning of the words, and perhaps that he would, of his own accord, ask her to explain them to him.

It turned out as she expected that it would. On Wednesday, while Juno was sitting upon a rustic seat under a tree in the garden, sewing, while Georgie had been for some time amusing himself in sailing boats in a large tub of water which stood in a corner of the garden, Georgie came to the place where she was sitting, and kneeled down at her side, upon a sort of lower step, which formed the foot-stool of Juno's seat.

" Well, Georgie," said Juno, " have you done sailing your boats ?"

" No," said Georgie. " Besides, they are not boats, they are ships, and I have sent one of them to California for a load of gold, and I am waiting to give her time to come back."

" That's an excellent voyage," said Juno. Then, after a moment's pause, she added, " Without partiality and without hypocrisy."

" Without partiality and without hypocrisy," said Georgie, repeating the words of his own accord.

" Why, Georgie!" said Juno, as if surprised, "you have learned the lesson already."

"Yes," replied Georgie, "but I don't know what it means. What does 'partiality ' mean ?"

" It means doing good only to ourselves, or to persons that we happen to like," replied Juno. " The verse says we must be full of mercy and of good fruits, that is of doing good, without partiality. That is, we must be merciful and kind to all the people that we know, and not take dislikes to people, and find fault with them, and say we won't do anything for them, because we don't like them."

" I don't like Billy Jones," said Georgie, speaking in a musing tone of voice.

" Then if you should have an opportunity to do him some good turn, and should refuse to do it because you don't like him, that would be showing partiality in your good fruits. I think you would do him a good turn if you had an opportunity. That is the way to be like God. He does not show partiality. There is a verse about it somewhere in the Bible. * He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.' "

" That's a pretty verse," said Georgie.

"Yes," said Juno, "it is a very pretty verse."

" I wish the teacher would give it to us for our lesson," said Georgie.

" Perhaps he will some day," said Juno. Georgie was silent a few minutes, pondering in his mind the question whether he should be willing or not to do a good turn to Billy Jones. But he had, for some reason or other, token a very strong dislike to that boy, and the idea of having any kind or friendly intercourse with him was very repugnant to his feelings, so he concluded to pass on to another topic.

"And hypocrisy," said he, after a short pause ; " what does hypocrisy mean ?"

" It means," replied Juno, " pretending to goodness and merit that you don't deserve. I can tell you a story about it if you like."

" Well," said Georgie, in a tone of great satisfaction, " I should like to hear the story very much indeed. But first let me go and see if my ship has come back from California."

The story which Juno had designed to relate to Georgie, as an illustration of hypocrisy, was one about himself. She, however, altered her mind about telling it to him, while he was gone to the tub, and concluded to substitute another in its place, one which she made up herself for the occasion. I will, however, give here the story which she first intended to tell, since the reasons which operated upon her mind to prevent her relating it to Georgie do not apply to the case of my writing it here for you to read. What those reasons were I shall explain by-and-by. The story itself was as follows:

It happened about a fortnight before the time I have been speaking of, that Georgie took a long ride in a carriage with Juno and his mother, a ride which took him about fifteen miles from home. The carriage was of a kind called a carryall. Juno and Georgie, together with a boy from the livery stable, who was about twelve years old, and who came with the carriage as driver, occupied the front seat, which was open toward the horses, and commanded a fine view. Georgie sat between Juno and the driver-boy, who sometimes, when the road was straight and smooth, let him drive. Georgie's mother sat upon the back seat, which seat she had all to herself. She had a book, and when she became tired of looking at the scenery, she amused herself by reading.

At noon the party arrived at a small village among the mountains, where they were to dine, and then to return home in the afternoon. While the landlady of the tavern was getting the dinner ready, Georgie's mother sat at a window in a little back parlor, reading, and Georgie himself took his station upon the front piazza, to amuse himself by observing what was going on in the street.

Presently a boy came walking along, with some pond lilies in his hand. Georgie asked the boy to give him one, but the boy would not. He said there were plenty more in the pond, and that if Georgie wanted any he must go and get them himself.

" Where is the pond ?" asked Georgie.

" It is out by Tom Cassidy's," said the boy.

" Who is Tom Cassidy ?" asked Georgie.

"He is a colored man," replied the boy, " and he lives out there, about half a mile, close to the pond."

Georgie was immediately seized with a strong desire to go out to this pond after dinner, and gather some lilies, but he felt very much afraid that his mother would not give her consent to such a proposal if he were to make it directly, so he ingeniously contrived an indirect way of accomplishing his purpose.

He went to Juno and told her that there was a family of colored persons living about half a mile distant from the tavern, and asked her if she would not like to go out and see them.

" If you do," said he, " I'll go with you after dinner. We shall have plenty of time while the horses are resting."

" What is the name of the family?" asked Juno.

" Cassidy," said Georgie; " Tom Cassidy."

" Cassidy ?" repeated Juno; "Cassidy? I know a girl very well that is named Lucinda Cassidy, and I should like to go and see her very much."

" Then let us go," said Georgie.

" No," replied Juno, " I think it would not be convenient for your mother to let me go away and leave her alone here at this tavern. I should not like to ask her."

" I'll ask her myself," said Georgie ; and off he ran.

He went to the little back parlor and there told his mother that he had found out that one of Juno's friends lived in that town, and that Juno would like very much to go and see her, but that she would not ask to go, for fear that she could not conveniently be spared.

"She can go just as well as not," said Georgie's mother, " for we are going to stay here two hours after dinner, to let the horses rest. And you are a very good boy to take so much interest in finding ways to please Juno."

" I thought you would like to have me tell you," said Georgie.

So Georgie went back to Juno and told her that his mother had given her leave to go.

This was an example of hypocrisy. Georgie pretended to his mother and to Juno that his motive in wishing to get leave for Juno to go was a kind interest in her welfare, and not, as it really was, a desire of his own to procure some pond lilies.

Hypocrisy like this is very often successful, especially for the time being. It was so in this case. Georgie went with Juno to the place where Tom Cassidy lived, and there he saw the pond, and the pond lilies growing in the water. One of Tom Cassidy's boys went out in an old leaky boat which lay there near the shore, and brought in for Georgie half a dozen of the lilies. Juno was not willing that Georgie should himself go out in the boat.

Juno found out what the true reason was why Georgie had been so much interested in obtaining his mother's consent to her making this visit, but she did not reproach him with it at the time. When, however, he asked what the word hypocrisy meant, she thought of this incident, and she at first concluded to make use of it as an illustration. The reason why she did not will be explained in the next chapter, which will also contain two stories which she substituted instead of it.

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