Fireside Stories for Girls in Their Teens Part 8

Suddenly the net was full of fishes--so full that Peter and Andrew could not manage it. Quickly they called to their partners, James and John, to come and help them. And when Peter saw the mult.i.tude of fishes that were in the net, he was overpowered with the greatness of the man who had helped them. Quickly he fell on his knees before the Christ and said, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man."

Then Jesus turned to Peter and with a whole world of meaning said,

"Peter, it is a great mult.i.tude of fishes that you have caught, but you can do greater things than that. You can do far greater things than catch fish from the water. If you will come with me, I will teach you how to catch men and you shall be my worker. I need you, Peter. Will you come?"

Would he come? Peter, who had been longing to make his life worth while; Peter, who had been longing to know what it was that made Jesus so wonderful as he went among men. Would he go and let Jesus teach him? Would he be a follower of the Master and go out in the big world to help win men?

A great happiness filled the mind of Peter and when he lifted his face to the Christ, the answer to the question of the Teacher was written on it.

So Jesus found a helper and Peter found a task that was worth while.

"And when he had brought his boat to land, he gladly forsook all and followed Christ." So well did he follow that we read in the Book of Acts that after Peter had talked to the mult.i.tude on the day of Pentecost, there were added to the church, at one time, three thousand persons who believed the word that he had spoken to them.

WHY ELIZABETH WAS CHOSEN

The Triangle Club of Center High School were all busily engaged in choosing the girls whom they should invite to go to the house party which Mrs. Warren was giving them. Mrs. Warren had a cottage on a lake, fifteen miles from the city, and she had written to the club saying that she wanted them all to spend a week with George, her son, there in the camp.

And better still, she was ready to invite any ten girls whom they might choose. Mrs. Warren was the wife of the minister, so all the boys knew that the mothers of the girls would be glad to have them spend a week with her at the dear little camp in the pines, about which they had heard so much.

One by one they had chosen the girls, each boy having a choice, and now all that was left to be done was for Carl Green, their president, to choose. But Carl was in an examination, so they must wait for him.

"I think he will choose Charlotte Morey," said one. "She is so pretty and Carl has taken her to several dances this winter."

"Not a bit of it," said another. "He will ask Helen Keats, for she makes such good marks in school that he is glad to be seen out with her. She is fine company and I hope he asks her."

"I think he will ask his sister, Jane. Carl is always thinking of her and if she is at home, he will ask her first, I am sure," said a third.

While they were talking, they saw the boy coming across the lawn in front of the school. Every boy smiled and eagerly leaned forward to greet him, for Carl Green was easily their hero. He could lead in sports of all kinds, he was cheery and patient, he was a good student in school--he was an all-round boy and what he did was right in the eyes of the boys.

"Come on, Carl," they called. "Here is a letter from Mrs. Warren telling us we can invite the girls up for the house party. Isn't she a dear to think of it? We have chosen part of the girls and here is our list, but you still have a choice. Of course we know whom you will choose, but we thought we had better let you write the name. Come on! Hurry up."

Carl took the list and looked carefully through it. Then he said,

"That will be a fine party, fellows. I like that list. Let me see. That is the last week in June, so Jane will be away. I'm sorry, for I should have liked to have given her the fun. Well, as long as she can't go, I should like to ask Elizabeth Wyman to go with us."

A chorus of boys' voices sounded as soon as the name was spoken.

"Elizabeth Wyman! Why do you want her? She doesn't go with our set. She refused to go to the dance at the beach with us, though the whole club was going. Said she didn't like the movie we were going to see. She wouldn't vote for the Sunday picnic that we wanted. Oh, Carl, you don't want her.

She would spoil our fun. Choose another."

Carl let the boys talk all they chose and then he said,

"Fellows, if you insist, I will choose another, but I should prefer to take Elizabeth. I'll be frank with you, I'm going to go with her if she will let me and this would be a fine opportunity to get to know her."

"If she will let you--that is a joke. As if any girl would not let you,"

said John.

"No," said Carl, "I mean what I say. I am going to be her friend if she will let me. And I'll tell you why--though I am not sure that she would want me to do it. Still she told me the story in a very frank way, so I don't think she would mind. At least I hope not. But I want you to know her in the way I do, for if she is my friend you will be often with her.

After I tell you, you will understand why I say, 'If she will let me.'"

"It was the night of the snowstorm and I was coming up the street when I caught up with her. It was very cold and she was snuggling into a beautiful little neckpiece of ermine. I am fond of furs and so I said to her,

"'I like the little ermine that you have about your neck. It is so simple, yet so beautiful. It is very different from the large ones that most people wear these days.'

"'Oh,' she said, 'I like it too. Uncle sent it to me this winter and I love it because of the story he told me about the little animal whose fur it is.'

"'Tell me the story,' I said.

"But she smiled and patted the fur as she said, 'I don't think I could, for it is very personal. It was a message from Uncle to me, so it means much to me. To you, it might not mean anything.'

"'But I should like to hear it,' I said. 'Please tell it to me.'

"'Well,' said Elizabeth, 'Uncle seems very queer to mother because he wants a message to go with every gift, but I like it. When this came, his letter said:

"'"Girlie: I wonder if you wouldn't like to wear this bit of ermine.

When the ermine is pursued by a larger animal and it comes to a puddle of mud, it will die before it will soil its coat. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you and all the girls who are your friends would be as careful of your characters and never, no never, do that which would soil them?"'

"We walked part of a block before we spoke after she had told me of the gift, and then she said, 'I am sure that the girls at school sometimes think me very particular because I will not do some of the things that they do. Perhaps they are all right for them but I feel that they would soil my coat, so I do not do them. I am trying to keep it white and this little bit of ermine helps a lot. Of course, I like to wear it, but it would be very uncomfortable if I did not try.

I hope you don't think me foolish, now that you know the story of the fur.'"

There was silence as Carl finished speaking. Then Carl Green threw back the long locks from his forehead as he said,

"I know a good thing when I see it, fellows, and the girl who would die rather than soil her character is a mighty good friend for a boy to have.

She is worth asking to our house party. I'm thinking she is worth winning for a friend. Good-by, I am going to ask her before any of you change the name on your list."

So Elizabeth Wyman went to the house party at Mrs. Warren's, and to this day she wonders why the boys seemed so different from what they had seemed before. But because she knew no difference, she was sure that it must have been because she was invited by Carl Green, the leader of the Triangle Club of Center High School. But you and I know better.

JANIE'S SCHOOL DAYS

Janie was sixteen years old, but she looked as though she might be only thirteen as she sat on the front seat of the little schoolhouse far up on the mountainside of Kentucky. Her black hair was plastered tightly to her head. Her calico dress was much too long and the sleeves were much too short. Mother had made it long so that she might wear it for several years, while the sleeves were short so that she might have no excuse for not getting her hands in the dish water. Her bare feet were very dirty but her face shone from its recent scrubbing.

This was a great day for Janie, for the missionary had once again come to the schoolhouse. It had been three years since she was there before, and all that time Janie had waited for her. So she had hurried with her work in order that she might sit on the very front seat and hear every word.

Last time she had told much about the school many miles away and Janie had said over and over to herself, "I shall go there; I shall go there." But of course it was foolish to say so, for there wasn't any chance that she ever could go. Why, there were seven brothers and sisters younger than she, and she had to work all day long to help to get them enough to eat.

She could never go.

But she listened eagerly as the missionary told of all that was being done in the little schoolhouses all about the mountains and of the need of teachers to do the work.

"We like best to take a boy or girl from some hamlet and let them work with us for several years and then send them back to their own homes to serve there. I am wondering if there isn't a girl here who would like to be the teacher here and help to make Round Creek what it ought to be. If there is such a one, send them to us and we will do our best. If you will pay $10 a term, we will do the rest."

Janie's little body was leaning far forward and her eyes were big with excitement. She knew a girl that would like to go. But $10 a term! Why, one dollar seemed big in their home. So she crept out into the darkness of the night without saying a word to any one about her great, big longing.

But up in the loft of the log house she lay long after the rest went to sleep trying to think of a way. Auntie was coming to stay with them in the fall. If she could just get the ten dollars by that time, maybe she could be spared for a term. That would help a little, anyway.