profess to be Christians. They pretend to give up all to God and to
forsake all their sins, but they don't do it. There is some little sin,
or bad habit, or self-indulgence, that they don't like to part with: so
they keep that while they pretend—often pretend to themselves—to give
up all. Such Christians can never be happy or useful. There was once
a very wise and witty man who said that all the riches and honors and
pleasures in the world would be of no use to a man who was compelled
always to wear a little sharp nail in the heel of his shoe. These
concealed or reserved sins which we are not willing to give up are like
the little sharp nail. They lame the man when he wants to walk, and
torment and hinder him when he wants to work, and he can't even sit
still in comfort. Now who can give me the Golden Text?"
"'If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me"
(Ps. 66:18), repeated all the voices together.
"I shall not talk about that," said Miss Isabel, "but I want you to
think about it."
Phil walked slowly homeward thinking about the lesson. He had had a
little—a very little—nail in his shoe all summer, and somehow it had
grown a good deal longer and sharper since hearing about those pansies.
He had said to himself a dozen times that he did not know what to do
about it; that there was no help for it now; but he had never tried to
find out whether there was any help for it or not. He went into his
garden as soon as he came home and looked at his flowers. How beautiful
they were! They were the glory of his garden-but then—
"You can't take them up," said the tempter. "You will kill them all."
"I can ask Mr. Regan," said Phil.
"Besides, she has no right to the plants either," said the tempter.
"Wait till the seeds get ripe, and you can give her some of them."
"Maybe the seeds won't get ripe, or maybe I sha'n't live till then,"
answered Phil. "Anyhow, there's only one right thing to do, and I'm
going to do it. There!"
"You're early for school this morning," said granny when Monday came.
Granny was almost well now. She could do many things about the house,
which looked much neater than when it was left only to Mary.
"I want to stop and see Mr. Regan," answered Phil.
"Oh, very well. Just look in at the cow, and give my duty to Mrs.
Barnard if you see her," said granny, who had old-fashioned notions of
politeness.
Phil found Mr. Regan busy in the garden, as usual, and at once asked
his question.
"Please, Mr. Regan, will it hurt pansies to transplant them now?"
"Not if you do it in the cool of the day, water them well, and shade
them for a day or so," answered the old gardener. "How have yours
turned out?"
"Famously," answered Phil, "only—well, you see, Mr. Regan, I feel all
the time as if I hadn't any right to them, and so I'm just going to
take them back to the lady that threw away the seed."
"You're a good boy and an honest boy," said Mr. Regan, "and you are
going to do the right thing. However I wouldn't take them all up, for
fear they shouldn't do well. Take the lady some of each kind, and then
if they don't live, you can give her more. And stop in on your way
home and I'll give you a lot of slips. It's such a growing time, the
geraniums and things are getting out of all reason."
Phil waited till toward sunset, and then filling a basket with the very
best of the pansy roots, he took them up to Mr. Anderson's, for he had
heard Miss Mary say that she was going to spend two or three days with
Miss Isabel. He found the two young ladies on the lawn admiring some
double petunias.
"Why, Phil, what have you here?" asked Miss Isabel. "Some of your
beautiful pansy roots."
"And such fine ones," said Miss Mary. "They make me regret mine more
and more."
"If you please, Miss, these are yours," said Phil, blushing scarlet and
stammering a little.
"Mine! How so?"
"'Twas I that picked up the seeds and planted them in my garden," said
Phil, taking courage. "I didn't feel easy about them—not just right
in my mind, you know—and granny said she mistrusted I ought to have
carried the seeds in, and I know it, and it has been like the little
nail Miss Isabel spoke of, all the time tormenting me. So I asked Mr.
Regan, and he said it would do them no harm to move them, if you'll
please to accept them, Miss, and excuse me for not bringing them
before. And I didn't bring them all, because Mr. Regan said I'd better
wait and see if these do well. And so there they are, Miss, and I'm a
thousand times obliged to you."
Phil's grammar was rather "mixed up," as the boys say, but his meaning
was clear.
Miss Mary was very much pleased.
As for Miss Isabel, it would be the truth to say that she was more
pleased than if any one had given her a hundred dollars. She had a good
many hundreds of dollars already, but she did not often see such direct
results of her teaching.
"But, Phil, I cannot consent to take all the pansies," said Miss Mary
when she had looked at and admired the flowers. "True, I furnished the
seed, but then all the work and care has been yours. In such cases the
rule is that the one who furnishes the seed shall have half the crop,
so one half of these plants are honestly yours. You must take them back
again."
"I didn't move them all, as I told you, Miss," said Phil. "Mr. Regan
said it was better not, because they might not do well, and then you
would lose them all."
"Very well then, keep what you have and I will take these. They will be
a great ornament to my little garden."
"What set you to making a garden in the first place, Phil?" asked Miss
Isabel, who was busy cutting some fine flowers.
"'Twas something you said one day last spring, Miss," answered Phil.
"Don't you remember the text we had, 'Cast thy bread upon the waters'?
You said that bread meant seed, and that any little good thing we could
find to do was seed. Granny loves flowers dearly, and I thought, what
should hinder my raising some for her? And then I found the papers in
the street with a few seeds in most all of them besides the pansies,
and Mr. Regan gave me a few more, besides the sweet peas I bought, and
he told me what to do to them."
"You ought to be a gardener," said Miss Mary.
"My father was one, and it's myself would like to learn the business,
if I had a chance," answered Phil. "Mr. Regan said maybe he'd find a
place for me some day."
"So you know Mr. Regan," said Miss Isabel, giving Phil the flowers she
had been cutting.
"Yes, ma'am; he's always been a good friend of ours."
And Phil bade the ladies good night and walked home as happy as a king.
The nail was out of his shoe, and he could work at his pansy bed and
enjoy its beauty without any more trouble.
"That is worth a great deal," said Miss Mary when Phil had gone.
"Yes, it is one of the greatest encouragements I have ever had,"
answered Miss Isabel, "and yet we might have called him the most
hopeless case in the class. I heard Williams the gardener telling papa
that he needed more help, and would like a boy if he could get a good
one. I must tell him of Phil."
A proud and happy boy was Phil when, at the close of the summer term
of school, he found himself installed as Mr. Williams's helper in the
garden and green-house, and really learning the business of a gardener,
besides earning a dollar and a half every week.
"It's just the place I would have chosen for you," said granny. "Mr.
Anderson is a real fine man and will do well by you, and so is Mr.
Williams, though he's a bit short tempered at times, as I mind your own
father that's in glory this minute used to be when the work hurried
him. As for Miss Isabel, she's just the darling of the world."
"I'm thinking Phil will get to be a great man one of these days," said
Mary.
"I hope he'll get to be a good man, and that's better," said granny.
"Greatness isn't the first thing to strive for, nor yet riches, nor
yet learning even, though all are good in their way. And mind, Phil,
that you don't get set up with pride, for if you do you'll have a fall.
Mind you don't forget who it was gave you such an opportunity and such
kind friends. Say your prayers every day, remembering that the blessed
Saviour died on the cross for your salvation, and try to please him
above all, for if he don't help you, it's little good any other help
will do you."