Thoughtful 



GENTLE JEAN.



JEAN was a young French girl with a kind and loving heart. Her father died when she was but a small child, and yet there were three others smaller than she! Her mother was timid and delicate, and wept a great deal, so lonely and sad and fearful she felt at the life, which lay before her.

Jean was greatly troubled when she saw her mother weep, and she thought one day that she would comfort her. She put her little arms around the dear neck, and said, "Dear mamma, do not weep. I will take care of you and the little ones."

The mother smiled sadly, and shook her head; but she did not know what strength of love was in that gentle little heart.

Early next morning Jean asked permission to visit a little friend whose father was gardener to a very rich man. The gardener loved the kind little girl, and when she asked him if he could give her a few rosebuds and violets to make into little bouquets and sell, "to buy bread for mamma and the children," the tears came into his eyes. He went to the mistress, who was a kind woman, and told her what the child had asked. She told him to give her all the flowers she could sell, that day and every day, and then she went in her fine carriage to see the mother, and gave her sewing and embroidery to do, so that with her own work, and the money that Jean brought home from the sale of the flowers, they could live very comfortably. 

Jean loved flowers, and by-and-by began to raise them herself. At first she had only a few pots in the windows, but as the years went by, a pretty little hot-house was built, and the garden bloomed all summer long, and Jean was known as the sweet flower maiden to rich and poor alike; for in her prosperity she never changed her gentle kindness; for the same love which sent her to ask for a few flowers in her little girlhood, that she might take care of mamma, made her the helpful friend of all whom she knew.

So she came to be known all through the town as "Gentle Jean," and her love to others brought back love in return. 


S. S. Advocate.