O look! Look ‘ere Dobson, I catched such a pretty thing such a pretty thing,” said little Junkie, springing through the gate. Dobson saw Master Junkie staggering up the path with one hand clasped round the throat of a snake, whose body and tail were twining round the chubby arm of its captor in a vain effort for freedom, while its forked tongue darted out viciously. It was at once regnized as one of the most deadly snakes of the country.
“Ain’t it a booty?” asked Junkie, holding up his prize in full view.
Dobson seized the child’s hand in his own left one, holding it tightly, and sliced off the reptile’s head just as the friends, attracted by the nurse’s outcry, rushed to the rescue. The menservants rushed from the stable and the kitchen. The mother had gone into hysterics until she saw her darling was saved, then fell flat in a dead faint upon the floor.
Junkie now took up the cry, but it was from being robbed of his new pet.
“What a blessing!” exclaimed Mrs. Brook, “What a mercy!” murmured Gertie, as she carried off Junkie. “What a rumpus!” said the manservant, taking himself off to the kitchen. But Junkie alone thought it was a shame to take his pretty plaything from him, and resented. the interference of his friends as though they, rather than the deadly serpent which Dobson had killed, meant to do him harm.
Children! there is in this a lesson for everyday life; can you not see its meang? You remember, when you cried so hard, perhaps, because your dear parents would not let you go to some pleasure you could not see any harm in or perhaps it was a book your little playmate loaned you, that father or mother said was not a good and fit one for you to read.
You thought it dreadful, if, perhaps, you did not say that your parents did not love you, or they would let you have your own way. But, after all, it was really a narrow escape from a greater danger than little Junkie had. When you are tempted to feel “put out” when mother says she cannot let you go to places until she consults your father, or plainly says “No” to your request, remember that God says,
You do not need to understand how it is best to do as they say; but God has put you in their charge, and often it is a great trial to your parents to deny you things you would like, but they wish to save you from evils often that “bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder,” and so keep you from them.
Some time ago a man in India, reading a book, felt a slight prick in his finger. He did not think it was anything serious, but his hand swelled, and it killed him„ A little serpent, hidden in its leaves, had stung him!
Dear young friends, if you read books that you would not like mother to see, or that would make von blush to read aloud, get rid of them, and rejoice that it was a narrow escape instead of a loss. If you also have young friends who tempt you to do things and go to places, saying,
“O, your parents won’t mind,” or, worse still, “They will not know,” ask the Lord to give you strength to say “No,” and it will be another narrow escape from a hidden serpent.
ML 10/26/1941