CHAPTER IV
FRANKIE'S BROTHER WILLIE
It was a long time before Ponto became reconciled to see Frankie in his jumper. He barked loud and long, as if he was afraid his little friend would hurt himself, tied up in so strange a manner. But baby grew every day more fond of this exercise; and as soon as he saw his mother take the jacket, he would spring so that she could hardly hold him still enough to fasten the buttons tightly to the wooden frame. One day, when he and his mamma were alone in the nursery, he grew very sleepy, and at last his little head nodded down, down, quite upon his breast. Mamma laughed softly, and she waited a minute to see what he would do. Presently he awoke a little, and touched his toes to the floor to make the jumper spring, and get himself to sleep again. Then she took him in her arms, and after loosing the buttons to his jacket, laid him in his cradle for a nice nap.
One day Willie came running into the room when mamma was singing to the baby, who was not well. He was a good boy, and knew that he must not make a noise; so he took a cricket, and sat down by her side. He loved to hear the gentle lullaby; but now he wondered why mamma looked so sober. Pretty soon he saw one, two, three, tears drop right upon Frankie's head. Her face was always so full of smiles that he knew not what to make of it. She got up to put the baby in the cradle, and then she saw Willie looking at her as if he wondered what this meant.
"Come here, my dear," she said softly, laying his head on her shoulder. "Mamma has been praying the good God for you and your little brother."
"Are you afraid Frankie is going to die, as sister did?" asked Willie; "I saw some tears on your cheeks."
"No, dear," said mamma. "I was thinking how kind God was to give me two such dear boys. Then I looked at Frankie's hands, such pretty little fingers and thumbs, and I asked God never to let them do that which was naughty, never to allow them to strike or take what did not belong to them."
Willie gazed a moment at his hands; I suppose he was trying to think whether they had been naughty hands or good hands. Presently he said, "Toes can't do wrong, I think, mamma, as hands can."
"Ah, yes, my dear," said his mother. "Only yesterday I knew a little boy whose feet were very naughty, and walked away where he had been forbidden to go."
Willie's face grew very red. "I forgot about that," he said in a whisper.
"Do you remember," asked his mother, "the lady who visited here with her little girl, and how she used to kick and stamp her feet when she could not do exactly as she wished? Were those good feet, and do you think her heavenly Father was pleased to see how she was using them?"
"O, no, indeed, mamma! But I guess God liked it when I used my feet to carry James Wells's ball home, because he would have lost it if I had not given it to him."
"Yes, dear, your feet and your hands, too, were good then; and beside that, there was a kind feeling in your heart, which made you wish to carry the ball to the poor boy."
"I'm glad I did it," said Willie, smiling in his mother's face. "Did you think any thing about Frankie's mouth?"
"Yes, indeed, I prayed that my darling baby might use his sweet little mouth to praise God, and that never, no, never might a naughty word come out of it. O, how dreadful it is to think that little boys or little girls should use the gifts of the good God to disobey his holy laws!"
CHAPTER V
FRANKIE'S NEW LESSONS
When Frankie was a year old, his mamma thought it quite time for him to learn to go to bed by himself. So she took him up in her chamber, and shut the blinds, to keep out all the flies. Then she gave him his luncheon, and laid him on Willie's trundle-bed. This was low; and she thought, if he tried to get off, it would not hurt him as much as if it were higher. "Now," said she, "my darling must be good, and shut his eyes, and go to sleep; and then mamma will come and put on his pretty cap and shoes, and take him to ride in his little wagon." She kissed him, and went into the dressing room, to see what he would do.
But Frankie did not like this at all, and he began to cry as loud as he could, and call for his mamma to come back. When he found this did no good, he stuck up his stomach, and kicked his feet, and at last he held his breath until his mamma was frightened, and ran to hold him up.
"Frankie is naughty," she said; "mamma can't kiss a naughty boy." Then she laid him down again, and started to go away. But he cried as loud as ever, until mamma was obliged to pat his dear little hands until they looked quite red. She went away, and stood where she could look through the crack of the door. He called "mamma," two or three times, and then, tired with his crying, he fell asleep.
"Dear little Frankie!" she said, coming to the bed and kissing the tears off his rosy cheeks. "It made mamma's heart ache to whip him."
In a few days the little fellow had learned this new lesson; and though he missed his mother's arms folded tenderly about him, and the sweet smiles which mingled with the hushaby in his infant dreams, yet he grew reconciled to it at last, and became a very good baby.
Every day now he learned something new; first to say, "Wee," for Willie; then to hide his tiny head behind a handkerchief, as Margie did when she played peep a-boo with him. Another time he held out his hand for the brush, and tried to smooth Willie's hair; but instead of that he tangled the close curls most terribly, so that the poor boy could hardly keep from crying when mamma combed them out again.
One morning Sally was ill, and obliged to stay in bed. Margie wished to play with Frankie while her master, and mistress, and Willie were at prayers; but mamma said, "No; Frankie may come to prayers too."
Papa took the large Bible, and Willie stood close by his side, his little finger pointing to the verses as the reading went on; and the baby sat on his mother's knee, his eyes very wide open, to see all that was going on. He looked first at mamma, and wondered, I suppose, that she did not smile. Then he turned to papa, who was reading serious words in a solemn tone. He gazed next in Willie's face; but Willie was intent upon the book. At last he caught a glimpse of Margie's laughing eyes, and he spoke right out. The little girl had not heard one word of the reading. She had been watching Frankie, to see how he would behave; and now, before she thought where she was, she laughed aloud. But when she saw that her laughing had made Willie smile and turn from his book, and that her mistress looked very sorry, she was sorry too, and covered her blushing face with her little apron.