The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher | Page 9

to
hide from sight, but he always tried to be ready to give heed to the
slightest order. But even this faithfulness, as well as the fact that he had
so much difficulty in comprehending her meaning, made the mother
still more unkind.
One duty that was assigned him as a daily task was sweeping the
crumbs from beneath the dining-table, and when he had learned how,
so thoroughly did he do this work that he never stopped brushing until
he had found every particle of dust or lint in sight that had settled under
other articles of furniture.
Another duty was carrying food to the dog, and he soon found that the
well-filled plate of scraps contained far better food in many instances
than he was allowed to share at the table. Whenever this happened, as it
often did, and there was plenty of other food for the dog, Edwin ate a
portion, but never without feeling confident that he was not robbing his
friend. As the dog usually looked very wise, Edwin took it for granted
that his motive was understood as right and just, and in this way the
child was able to get some of the food that he would otherwise have
been denied, and the dog's allowance was still sufficient. Rather than
rob the dog, he would always have gladly done without.
When Edwin was given the care of his little baby cousin, who was just
beginning to walk, he felt that this work was very hard indeed, but he
did his best to understand just what was expected of him. Having been
the youngest child at the almshouse and having spent so much of his
time apart from the others, Edwin was unable to think of many ways in

which he could amuse the little fellow, and sometimes it seemed that
all of his efforts to please had been in vain.
A few weeks after Edwin's arrival in his mother's home the
children--Edwin and his three cousins, Elmer, Jennie, and the
baby--were playing in the yard with Perry the dog. Elmer, a lad
scarcely a year younger than Edwin, was tossing a stick for the dog to
return to him, and Edwin was astonished to find that his friend Perry
was so very wise. The baby, who was in Edwin's charge, was barely
able to keep upon his feet, but Edwin was doing his best to protect him
from falling and to keep his eyes upon both the child and the dog at
once.
Suddenly above his head in a large apple-tree Edwin heard a rustling of
the leaves and a chattering of little birds, and he realized that his
feathered friends had returned with a breakfast for the little ones. As he
gazed upward endeavoring to locate the nest, he was just pointing to
the spot when whiz went the stick with which Elmer had been amusing
the group. So dangerously near to the nest did the missile go that Edwin,
crying out with terror and anxiety, for the moment forgot all about his
baby cousin. Running toward the tree as though hoping to protect the
nest, he was just in time to see the stick miss the mark and then fall
upon the ground alarmingly near the baby's foot. Although unhurt, the
baby screamed, and a moment later Mrs. Fischer came rushing from the
house and demanded a reason for the little one's crying.
Elmer, ever willing to justify himself at any cost, said hurriedly: "It was
all Ed's fault! I just tried to throw that little stick up there in the tree,
and when it came down it struck the baby's foot. If Ed had been
minding his work, the baby wouldn't have been there." But Elmer failed
to tell that he was throwing at the little nest with the intention of
knocking it out of the tree and that the stick had done no harm to the
baby's foot.
Accepting the explanation without any further details, Mrs. Fischer
became furious, and, picking up the stick, she struck Edwin time and
again upon the head and shoulders. Then, after calling him many hard
and cruel names, she said, "I'll teach you how to attend to your business

if there's any sense in you at all!"
After looking at the baby's foot and finding that there was nothing
wrong with it at all, the woman, without a word of apology or
sympathy for her suffering child, returned to the house.
Once again when the poor boy was so much alone, as far as a human
friend was concerned, his heavenly Father understood and supplied his
need. Perry at once left his former master and, going close to Edwin,
did all within his power to soothe the little sufferer, and his sympathy
was as balm