|When Charlie woke up one morning and looked from the window, he saw
that the ground was deeply covered with snow. The wind had blown it in
great drifts against the fence and the trees.
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Charlie's little sister Rosey said it looked like hills and valleys. On
the side of the house nearest the kitchen the snow was piled higher than
Charlie's head. Mamma said she did not know how black Aunt Patsey could
get through it to bring in the breakfast.
"There must be a path cleared through this snow," said papa. "I would
do it myself, if I had time. But I must be at my office early this
morning." Then he looked at Charlie. "Do you think you could do it, my
son?"
"I, papa! Why, it is higher than my head! How could a little boy like me
cut a path through that deep snow?"
"How? Why, by doing it _little by little_. Suppose you try; and if I
find a nice path cleared when I come home to dinner, you shall have the
sled you wished for."
So Charlie got his wooden snow-shovel and set to work. He threw up first
one shovelful, and then another; but it was slow work.
"I don't think I can do it' mamma," he said. "A shovelful is so little,
and there is such a heap of snow to be cleared away!"
"Little by little, Charlie," said his mamma. "That snow fell in tiny
bits, flake by flake, but you see what a great pile it has made."
"Yes, mamma; and if I throw it away shovelful by shovelful, it will all
be gone at last. So I will keep on trying."
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Charlie soon had a space cleared from the snow, and as he worked on the
path grew longer. By and by it reached quite up to the kitchen door. It
looked like a little street between snow-white walls.
When papa came home to dinner, he was pleased to see what his little
boy had done. Next day he gave Charlie a fine blue sled, and on it was
painted its name, in yellow letters, "_Little by Little_."
The boys all wanted to know it came to have such a name.
And when they learned about it, I think it was a lesson to them as well
as to Charlie.
--MRS. SUSAN ARCHER WEISS
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