FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82  
83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   >>   >|  
ttle boy was left an orphan, but not forlorn, nor friendless, for the Christian lady took care of him. He was five years old, thin and delicate, and much fairer than most Hindoo children. He had many winning ways; but he had a proud heart. He was proud of his name, "Ramchunda," because it was the name of a great false god: but when he had learned about the true God, he asked for a new name, and was called "John." His wishing to change his name was a good sign: and there were other good signs in this little orphan; and before he died,--for he died soon,--he showed plainly that he had not a new _name_ only, but a new _nature_. Little Phebe was another child received by a missionary's wife. She was not an orphan, yet she was as much to be pitied as an orphan; for her mother told the missionaries that if they did not take the child, she would throw her to the jackals. It was a happy exchange for the infant to leave so cruel a mother to be reared by a Christian lady, who, instead of throwing her to jackals, brought her to Jesus. She died when only five years old by an accident: when washing her hands in the great tank she fell in, and was drowned. But some Hindoo children, though carefully instructed, do not grow gentle and loving, like John and Phebe. The tents of some English soldiers were pitched in a lonely part of India; and the night was dark, when an officer's lady thought she heard the sound of a child crying. The lady sent her servants out to look, and at last they brought in a little girl of four years old. And where do you think they had found her? Buried up to her throat in a bog, her little head alone peeping out. And who do you think had put her there? Her cruel mother. Yes, she had left her there to die. This child gave a great deal of trouble to the kind lady who had saved her, nor did she show her any love in return for her kindness; and after keeping her about two years, the lady sent her to a missionary's school. You see how cruelly mothers in India sometimes treat their children. Their religion teaches them to be cruel. A mother is taught to believe that if her babe is sick, an evil spirit is angry. To please this evil spirit, she will put her babe in a basket, and hang it up in a tree for three days. She goes then to look at it, and if it be alive, she takes it home. But how seldom does she find it alive! Either the ants or the vultures have eaten it, or it is starved to death. When there
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82  
83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

mother

 

orphan

 
children
 
missionary
 

jackals

 
spirit
 

brought

 
Hindoo
 
Christian
 

kindness


return
 
keeping
 

cruelly

 

mothers

 
school
 

peeping

 
throat
 

trouble

 

Buried

 

religion


seldom

 

Either

 

starved

 

vultures

 

friendless

 

taught

 

teaches

 

basket

 
forlorn
 

fairer


Ramchunda

 
missionaries
 

learned

 

reared

 

infant

 

exchange

 

pitied

 

nature

 

Little

 

plainly


showed

 

change

 

called

 

wishing

 

received

 
throwing
 
lonely
 

English

 

soldiers

 

pitched