Somebody Loves Me.


Two or three years ago, the superintendent

of the Little Wanderer's Home,  

received one morning a request from the

judge that he would come up to the courthouse.

He complied directly, and found

there a group of seven little girls, dirty,

ragged, and forlorn, beyond what even he

was accustomed to see. The judge, pointing

to them utterly friendless and homeless

said, "Mr. T., can you take any of them?"

"Certainly, I can take them all, was

the prompt reply.

"Ah! What in the world can you do with them?"

"I'll make women of them."

He singled out one, even worse in appearance

than the rest, and asked again:

"What can you do with that one?"

"I'll make a woman of her," Mr. T. replied,

firmly and hopefully. They were

washed, and supplied with good suppers

and beds. The next morning they went

into the school-room with the children.

Mary was the little girl whose chance for

better things the judge thought small.

During the forenoon, the teacher said to

Mr. T., in reference to her,

"I never saw a child like that; I have

tried for an hour to get a smile, but failed."

Mr. T. said afterward himself, that her

face was the saddest he had ever seen,

sorrowful beyond expression yet she was

a very sweet little girl, only five or six years old.

After school, he called her into his office,

and said, pleasantly,

"Mary, I've lost my little pet. I used to

have a little girl that would wait on me,

and would sit on my knee; and I loved her

very much. A kind gentleman and lady have

adopted her, and I would like you to take

her place, and be my pet now. Will you?"

A gleam of light flitted over the poor

child's face as she began to understand

him. He gave her a penny, and told her

she might go to a shop and get some

candy. While she was out, he took two or

three newspapers, tore them into pieces,

and scattered them about the room. When

she returned, in a few minutes, he said to

her, "Mary, will you clear up my office a little

for me; pick up those papers, and make

it look nice?"

She went to work with a will. A little

more of this sort of management in fact,

treating her as a kind father would, wrought

the desired result. She went into the

school-room after dinner with so changed a

look and bearing that the teacher was as

astonished.

The child's face was absolutely

radiant; and, half fearful of mental wandering,

he went to her, and said,

"Mary, what is it? What makes you

look so happy?"

Oh, I have got some one to love! Somebody

to love me!" the child answered,

earnestly, as if it were Heaven come down

to earth.

That was all the secret. For want of love,

that little one's life had been so

cold and desolate that she had lost  

childhoods beautiful faith  and hope. 

  She could not at first believe the reality of 

kindness or joy for her.  It was the certainty that

someone loved her and desired her affection

that lighted the child's soul and glorified

her face. Mary has since been adopted

by wealthy people, and now lives in a

beautiful home; but more than all its

beauty and comfort, running like a golden

thread through it all, she still finds the love

of her adopted father and mother.





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