Sunshine Factory | Page 3

the red blood that

rolled over his dark face as he said: "What is your grandfather's name?"
"Elias Miller, sir; and he is the best man on the street; oh I guess he's
the best in the city. I do wish Uncle Dick would come home and take
care of him. If he knew how much he was needed he couldn't help it."
"He'll come," said the tall man, striding on very fast; "which is the way?
Oh, you want the molasses;" and while they waited in the store, he
picked out a dozen rosy apples and had them put up; Mollie watching
with eager eyes. What if he should be going to give her one of them to
pay her for showing the way. If he did, grandpa should have his dessert.
The end of this story is one that is very hard to write.
How can I tell you in a few lines about the walk home, and about how
the tall gentleman carried the molasses, and said he would step in and
see grandpa a minute, and how grandpa's eyes, dim and old as they
were, yet knew in a minute that his own boy Dick stood before him,
and how they talked and laughed, and cried, and had a wonderful
dinner; every one of the twelve rosy apples bubbled into sauce; nor
how they moved the next day out of that street entirely into the nicest
of little houses, and how roasted potatoes and apple-sauce came to be
every day matters to Mollie, and how she made the dearest little
housekeeper in the world. You see it can't be done; it sounds like a
fairy story, but Mollie knows that it all happened.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]

FISHING.
Stuart Milburn did not feel very good-natured. "The whole world has
gone crazy," he muttered; "anyway this little snipe of a village has.
Why can't they let a fellow alone? I don't want them to look after me,
and I don't feel in need of their interference either. I never saw such a
time; I can't turn in any direction but some old maid will ask me

something stupid; and the girls are as bad, and the boys are worse."
Now, what do you suppose all this was about? You will be surprised
when you hear, for no doubt you think from his picture that Stuart was
a sensible boy.
The truth of the matter was just this: Stuart's home was in the city, but
he had come to the country to spend the summer vacation at his uncle's,
and have a good time. In his uncle's family were five cousins, three
boys and two girls. Robert, the oldest, was five years older than Stuart,
and, being a college graduate, Stuart looked up to him and respected his
opinion. He, as well as the others, were Christians.
[Illustration]
Now, it so happened that when the family of cousins heard that Stuart
was coming to spend the summer, they entered into an agreement to
pray for him every night and morning, and to do every thing that they
could to get him to be a Christian. A most reasonable and unselfish
thing, you will say. What would Stuart have thought of them if they
had possessed any other good thing in this world, and had kept all
knowledge of it to themselves!
But it was this very thing that had vexed him, and sent him off alone
with Tiger, that summer morning, instead of joining the cousins in their
fun. And yet they had been very pleasant about it all; they had not tried
to force him into doing anything that he did not want to do. I hardly
know what made him so absurd.
"Stuart," his Cousin Will said, "I wish you were going to Yale with me
this fall."
"I wish I were, with all my heart, old fellow," said Stuart, with the
utmost heartiness. "I worked like a Jehu to get ready to enter, but I
didn't accomplish it; never mind, just you look out for me next fall. I'll
be there as sure as my name is Milburn."
"Stuart," his Cousin Robert said, a little later, as they were coming up

the walk together, "I wish you were going this road to heaven with me,"
and Stuart answered nothing and looked annoyed and wished his cousin
would let him alone. Now, if you see any sense to that you see more
than I do.
As to the "old maids" there was only one of them in his uncle's family,
and as she was his own mother's own sister, and he had often been
heard to say that she was the very best old aunty that a fellow ever had,
one would think he might have excused her for wanting