Twilight stories

"COME along, Auntie! The tea will not be in for a few minutes, and the fire is bright and the curtains are drawn. Just sit down and give us a twilight talk. It is New Year's day...

"'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.'"

"WHAT are you looking at, Auntie?" The children crowded out of the French window, and stood on the verandah by her side, the stars and the deep twilight sky sending a sort of th...

TWO girls sat at a window in a cosy bedroom overlooking the snowy prospect; a bright fire burned in the grate, and a little table was spread with afternoon tea.

"WHY, Mother, it is almost as light as day!" said Robin, as the two came out from the shade of the trees close to the village church. "I was never out so late before. Look at th...

ALL is bare in the garden! The wind blows round in gusts; the snow lies thick wherever the wind has not lifted it; the cold seems to have taken possession.

"Miss Seymour will let you warm them, I am sure, if I explained," said her auntie. "Come here on my knee, and while you get warm we will have a little talk. Then I will help you...

"'When I went down in class the other day, you should have seen the look in George's eyes! As he took his place above me, he muttered beneath his breath, "You should have worked...

NELLIE had come out from home with rather a heavy heart. Her basket full of fresh eggs for the Vicarage had been taken safely there, and now she was returning. The twilight was...

WHEN I was a little child of about five, I remember very well how we used to play in the garden all the long summer days, and how insects and toads, hedgehogs and beetles, were...

Norman threw himself on the grass in front of her; not that he felt particularly friendly, but because he was tired. So they sat in silence, till, a little rested, he raised his...

"I WONDER why it's been such a good year for fruit?" said a little boy, looking up in the face of an elder one who was resting against a stile, still keeping a crutch in his han...

"THE sun's set, Jim," called Nellie, as she raked up the last bit of hay, "and we shall have a fine day to-morrow to finish it, by the looks of the sky."

"I HATE learning Scripture! At least—I don't like it—or see the good of it," said Robbie, his eager tone diminishing as he got through his sentence, and his eyes met those of hi...

"I COULD be perfectly happy if I could live always in a cottage like that, and look-out on such a view!" sighed Vera, as she and her mother sat one evening on a stile, and looke...

"I knew long ago a certain bank under a hedge, where, sheltered from the winds and storms, and warmed by the sun, the violets grew and flourished. So this afternoon as I wanted...

The fact was, the four children had got into rather a hot dispute one day at tea over a trifling difference of opinion, and Aunt Ruth had interrupted with a quick, bright questi...

"I WANT to love God and do what pleases Him," sighed Norman to himself; "but I make such a poor hand at it. Here I'm at school all day, and my head is cram full of lessons, and...

"Let us in, then, and we'll tell you!" answered Hugh, a tall boy of about fifteen. "You are as bad as the 'penny-a-liners,' who pile up the interest to the end of the chapter, a...

The ragged boy, cold to the bones, with a body wasted by disease and want, crouched down in a corner, intending to go to sleep till a cup of coffee, which he knew would be given...

"I've been to the prayer-meeting," she said. "I want to tell you about the old woman who went to the prayer-meeting last week! It's a lovely story. I have wanted to get home qui...

"I should think you hadn't!" said Jean. "I was searching in the garret this afternoon for something mother wanted in that old chest of hers, and I came upon them, wrapped up in...

"Have mother and father asked you? Don't answer if you'd rather not, auntie," he said, his cheeks burning, as he still looked in her face, "but mother is better and back again n...

SO the summer and the holidays had come to an end, and Aunt Ruth had "settled down," as Tom called it, and filled her own quiet little niche very happily.

"No; but I'm sure I haven't. I have only half-a-crown in the world, and that was in three sixpences and a shilling; and the shilling is gone! Besides, I heard it drop and roll a...

Mary, for once, sat muffled in a shawl in the arm-chair, and the rest gathered round her, glad to make her welcome to their circle, after her enforced absence of two days in bed...

"HERE is the first Sunday in December, Mary!" said Tom, as he went to draw the curtains. "We may as well sit in the firelight till the tea comes in."