Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/210

 layin' right aginst that tree top? I believe if we should climb up that tree we could step right off into Heaven, and I wonder if the Lord would be glad to see us if we should walk in."

"Of course He would," sez Delight. "He would come to the door and take us right up in His arms and say, 'I am glad to see you. Suffer little children to come unto me,' that is what Mama told me He said about children, and I learnt it."

But at this juncter Tirzah Ann rushed to the winder and hollered to Delight and told her to stop instantly, and Tamer Ann follered right on and told Jack to not let her hear any more such talk. And the children crep off into another part of the dooryard, lookin' crestfallen and wonderin' what they had said now that wuz wrong. And, after they wuz out of hearin', I sez, "Why did you tell your children you would punish 'em for sayin' what they did?"

Sez Tamer, "I won't have Jack show irreverence, and I'll whip him if he duz." And Tirzah Ann sez, "I will not allow Delight to talk in that way."

Sez I, "Tirzah Ann, ever sence she wuz a baby you have made little Delight pray to God, you have learnt her He wuz her best friend, you made her learn that beautiful verse she repeated, and now what irreverence wuz there in thinking that God would be glad to see 'em if they went to Heaven, when you have learned her to love God and go to Him with all her little troubles and temptations?"

"What is proper to say at prayer time hain't proper to say at other times," sez Tirzah, and sez Tamer, "Yes, that is so."

But I sez solemnly, "Tirzah Ann and Tamer, that is