.1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



143 



Besides the goods stored m the counter 

 store, we have a large room full in the cel- 

 lar, and a warehouse large enough to run a 

 train of cars through, that is pretty well 

 tilled with goods, and bee-hives in the flat, 

 ready to ship. If we don't look out, and 

 keep things in order, we let goods get lost, 

 and then go and order more when we have 

 a lot already. I tell you, one has to look 

 sharp, to sell thi)igs for five cents apiece, 

 and hire folks to do it, and not have the ex- 

 penses amount to more than the profit. 

 Don't you see how glad I am to get real 

 steady honest faithful hands that won't stop 

 to talk and play, nor let tilings get scattered 

 around and lost V 



There is another little neighbor I think I 

 shall have to tell you about, that I often 

 meet in the counter store. It is Caddie, 

 who isn't old enough to go to school. She is 

 always happy whenever she can go down to 

 the store, to see Eliza. She usually greets 

 me with "•Hello, pa," and then I have to 

 look pleasant, and say, "■ Hello," back again. 

 When a number are asking me things all at 

 once, I can't always smoothe my face down 

 to say hello, just on the minute; and then 

 she gets hold of my hand, and says, "• Why 

 don't you answer, pa? it's me. I said hello 

 to you." You see, I have to laugh then, and 

 stop business long enough to return her greet- 

 ing. Isn't it too bad, that I have to stop 

 and laugh when I don't want to V Come to 

 think of it, I believe it rather helps me with 

 my work, in the end. What do you think V 

 Do you ever help your papa that way ? 



While I think of 

 it, I want to show 

 you some pretty cups 

 and saucers, of which 

 we have just got a 

 great cask full. They 

 are printed, or deco- 

 rated, and there are 

 all sorts of different colors. They are 10 cts. 

 for a cup and saucer, but we put a set, of 6 

 each, in a pretty little willow basket, and 

 sell the whole for half a dollar. Blue Eyes 

 and her cousin Millie sorted a lot of them 

 out a few days before Christmas. It won't 

 hardly pay to have them sent by mail, for 

 the postage is 10 cents on a single cup and 

 saucer ; but when your father is getting 

 getting goods of us, you might order some 

 sent with them. 



Do you want to know Avhat Caddie does in 

 the counter store? Well, she usually bor- 

 rows a chair, and then gets one of the hve- 

 cent kitchen -sets and an orange, and has 

 " supper." Then she gets a lot of dressed 

 dolls, and sets them around in a tin pan, and 

 has "school." Didn't I tell you we kept 

 dolls for sale in the counter store V Well, 

 we do. Eliza thought we wanted them, 

 some time ago, but I argued they weren't 

 " useful articles," and we don't sell any 

 thing but that is useful ; but Eliza didn't 

 agree with me. Do you think dolls are use- 

 ful articles ? Caddie evidently does, for she 

 " uses " them a great deal. I have some- 

 times worried a little for fear she would get 

 them soiled before they were sold (and you 

 know folks want dolls just like the new tin 

 pans I was telling about last naonth) ; but 



DECORATED CUP AND SAU- 

 CER. 



Eliza says Caddie is always very careful of 

 them. May be I have been a little selfish in 

 getting things for the counter store for the 

 boys only, without thinking that girls want 

 dolls just as much as boys want sleds and 

 wagons. Did you never know I was selfish? 

 Well, I am. I will tell you of one place 

 where I discovered I had been selfish. 



Let's go back up stairs. I always go up 

 three steps at a time. Can you keep up 

 with me ? You see, I have to write so much 

 I get tired ; and when I want exercise I run 

 all over the rooms, to see if anybody is doing 

 any thing wrong, or making any mistakes, 

 and then run up stairs, just for fun. I don't 

 make much racket, for I wear kid shoes so I 

 can get around like a cat, you know ; and 

 then when I go outdoors I put on rubbers, so 

 my feet are never muddy. We are wanting 

 a carpet in our office, but we can't afford it 

 just yet ; and besides, we have a stove that 

 makes so much litter it wouldn't work well. 

 And, by the way, this stove is a " neighbor" 

 that stands right before me, and pretty close 

 too. Well, one day while I was writing I 

 got too warm, and, as usual, opened the 

 stove-door. As I did it, it occurred to me 

 for the first time that perhaps the rest, 

 whose desks were further away, might not 

 be too warm. I thought a minute, and then 

 spoke : — 



"• Girls ! Have I been keeping the room 

 too cold for you, in my selfishness, because I 

 happen to sit close to the stove ? " 



I knew by the smiles that were passed 

 around I had " struck the nail on the head ;" 

 and they finally confessed, laughingly, that 

 they talked of asking me to write a "' piece " 

 on " cruelty to clerks," shortly after I wrote 

 that one about cruelty to horses. It was be- 

 cause I was careless and thoughtless. When 

 it was summer time I moved my type- writer 

 quite near to the stove ; and then, as it gave 

 more room to pass into the closet where the 

 w^atches are, I left it there when we began 

 to have fires. After thinking a minute I 

 told them I was sorry some of them did not 

 talk right out plain to me and say,— 



'' Mr. Root, you are a big strong man, and 

 warmly clothed, and sit close to the stove, 

 while we are obliged to sit in different parts 

 of the room, and yet you keep the stove at 

 just such a temperature as to suit yourself, 

 without a thought or care for our comfort." 



I know you will plead for me, by saying I 

 did not think, and that I did not mean to be 

 unmindful of the comfort of others. I am 

 inclined to think that a great part of the self- 

 ishness in this world is caused by people not 

 thinking. My young friend, are you keep- 

 ing anybody away from the stove this cold 

 wintry weather ? Are you standing in any- 

 body's light ? Are you making somebody 

 suffer, by forgetting something you ought 

 to remember ? If so, you are not following 

 the Master, for he " pleased not himself." 



A GREAT NAME. 



HOW SHALL WE BECOME GREAT? 



1 



N our last number were some lines of poet- 

 ry about Alexander the Great. In a 

 few days after printing them we re-- 



