THERE LIVED in a town in the western United States, a family of three — father, mother, and a little boy named John. They were very poor. When death suddenly took both father and mother away, there was not much left for poor little John, after the funeral expenses were paid.
In his trouble, John thought of an uncle whom he had heard his father and mother speak of but this uncle lived in Chicago. That was a long way off, and John had no money.
One day he wandered down to the railway station, and as he stood on the platform, a train came rushing in. He asked a gentleman standing near where it was going.
“To Chicago!”
“Chicago!” thought John; “that’s where I want to go, and so he crept nearer the train.
Presently, he heard the conductor shout, “All aboard!” and with that, the bell on the engine began to ring.
“All aboard!” thought John; “that means ‘everybody aboard,’ and if everybody is invited to get aboard, why, that means me.”
At that instant the voice of the conductor shouted again, “ALL ABOARD!” and without further hesitation, John clambered on the train, and into a seat.
The train moved on and in a little while the conductor came for the tickets. But John had no ticket, nor had he any money. The stern conductor told him to leave the train at the next stopping place.
This he did, but to his astonishment and delight, he heard the conductor shout again, “ALL ABOARD!” and so he once more took his place in the train.
Angrily the conductor said “Didn’t I tell you to leave the train at the last station.”
“Yes,” replied John, “and so I did, but you said “ALL aboard”, and I thought that meant me, and so I got on again.”
The conductor saw the point of the boy’s mistake, but the child was evidently honest, and so after finding out his sad little story, he let him ride freely to the journey’s end.
“ALL” includes YOU in a truer sense than it did little John. “ALL we like sheep have gone astray.”
ML-03/10/1974