CHAPTER VI.

"How many miles a day do you walk?" Nurse asked Robbie. "Do you know?"

Robbie smiled, and stood still for a minute, to think, but soon ran away again.

"How many miles do you suppose he walks, Nursey?" asked Susy.

"I don't know. I wish I knew. And I wish I knew how many miles my hand travels in a week."

"Your _hand_! Why, just as many as your feet," said Susy.

"No such thing. See here now, look at me while I sew. Don't you see how my hand goes back and forth with every stitch? And when I make beds, and sweep and dust, and wash you children and dress you, and brush your hair, and pick up your toys--dear me! it's a wonder they're not used up, long ago!"

Susy laughed, and felt quite interested.

"Who told you any thing about that?" she asked.

"Nobody," said nurse. "Don't you suppose I ever have any thoughts of my own? However, I did see something in the paper about how far a printer's hand could travel in one day, and that set me to thinking about mine."

When Susy went to her mamma she told her what she and nurse had been talking about.

"I suspect your eyes are the greatest travellers you know much about," said her mamma. "Think how far they can go; and how many times they move from one end of the page to the other, when you read."

"I wish I knew how far," said Susy. "If Charlie ever comes here I mean to ask him to measure one of my books. He has got such a nice little carpenter's rule to measure with!"

Perhaps the children who read this book would like to know how far the hand that printed had to travel to do it. To be sure, it was not all done by a single hand; but one of the printers has been kind enough to find out how many miles the _hand_ moved when they set up the types, and behold it was nearly 230! Add to this the journeys my hand has had to make back and forth, to and fro, over the paper, off to the inkstand and back again, and you will see that even our little book costs a good deal of labor, and keeps a good many hands from being idle and so getting into mischief.

While Susy and her mamma were talking together, they heard a little knock at the door, and on opening it, they saw Robbie standing outside with a long piece of twine in his hand.

"What does Robbie want?" asked his mamma.

"I want you to mezzer how many miles long my foots are," said Robbie.

Susy and mamma laughed, and Robbie climbed up on the bed where his mamma still lay, though she was now getting well.

"Instead of that I will teach you a verse to say to papa at breakfast:

'Thou hast delivered my eyes from tears, my feet from falling and my soul from death.'"

Robbie learned his verse very quickly, and Susy wanted now to learn hers. Her mamma gave her an easy one:

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path;"

and Susy learned it so easily that she asked for another.

"I did not know there was any thing in the Bible about feet," said she. "Is there any thing about hands?"

"Yes, indeed. Don't you remember the story of the man with the withered hand that he could not use? Jesus must have pitied him because he had but one well hand, or he would not have healed him. In a few days I hope I shall be strong enough to have you come and read to me, and I will make a list of verses for you. For I want you to see that though your hands and feet and eyes and ears and tongue now seem small things, such as God would be likely to overlook, He has made them to do great things and useful and kind ones."