Page:Stories told to a child.djvu/207

 there was no music inside which only wanted winding out of it, as you wind the tunes out of barrel organs.

My mother, coming in some time during that melancholy afternoon, found me sitting at the foot of my little bed holding my accordion, and shedding over it some of the most bitter tears that shame and repentance had yet wrung from me.

She looked astonished, and asked, 'What is the matter, my child?'

'O, mamma,' I replied, as well as my sobs would let me, 'I have bought this thing which won't play, and I have given Mr. Miller my golden opportunity.'

'What, have you spent your half-sovereign? I thought you were going to put poor little Patty Morgan to school with it, and give her a new frock and tippet.'

My tears fell afresh at this, and I thought how pretty little Patty would have looked in the new frock, and that I should have put it on for her myself. My mother sat down by me, took away the toy, and dried my eyes. 'Now you see, my child,' she observed, 'one great difference between those who are earnestly desirous to do good, and those who only wish it lightly. You had what you were wishing for—a good opportunity; for a child like you, an unusual opportunity for doing good. You had the means of putting a poor little orphan to school for one whole year—think of that, Orris! In one whole year she might have learned a great deal about the God who made her, and who gave His Son to die for her, and His Spirit to make her holy. One whole year would 9*