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Read Ebook: Nanny Merry or What Made the Difference? by Anonymous
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Ebook has 349 lines and 14757 words, and 7 pages
NANNY MERRY.
NANNY MERRY;
Or,
What Made the Difference?
London: T. Nelson and Sons, Paternoster Row; Edinburgh; and New York. 1872.
IN WHICH NANNIE IS INTRODUCED.
A little brown house, with an old elm-tree before it, a frame of lattice-work around the door, with a broad stone for a step--this is where old Grannie Burt lives. And there she is sitting in the doorway with her Bible in her lap. She can't read it, for she is blind; but she likes to have it by her; she likes the "feeling of it," she says. "When my Bible is away," Grannie Burt says, "I am sometimes troubled and worried; but if I can only touch it, my troubles are all gone; for what harm can any trouble do us when we are going to heaven at last?"
I think she is expecting her now; for, see the cricket is all ready, and on the little table is a pitcher of cool water from the old well that you see just behind the house; and here is the little girl herself.
"Good-morning, grannie; are you waiting for me? I couldn't come any sooner, because mamma wanted me to play with Charlie; and here are some peaches mamma sent you,--she thought you would like them;" and Nannie, quite out of breath with her walk and her talk, stops a minute, which gives Grannie Burt a chance to answer her questions and to thank her for her peaches. "Now shall I read, grannie?" said Nannie, as, taking a long draught from the little pitcher, she sat down on the cricket.
"Eat this peach first," said grannie, picking out the softest and handing it to her; "I know you must be warm from your long walk, and this will cool you."
The peach looked so tempting that Nannie looked at it wishfully. Her mother had only given her one, and she had sent grannie a whole basketful. It was only for a moment that Nannie let these selfish thoughts trouble her. "Grannie never has any of her own, and in a few weeks I can have as many as I want," she thought; so taking up the Bible she said, "No, grannie, thank you; the water has cooled me enough; where shall I begin?"
"Read about heaven, Nannie; you know I like to hear about that best."
Softly the little voice began: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth." Then she read of the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations; and of the water of life, that flows near the jasper throne.
When she had finished, she said, "What makes you like to hear of heaven so much, grannie?"
"Oh, I'm going there, Nannie! When you read about the beautiful things, the pearly gates, and the golden streets, I think, 'I shall see them, for there will be no night there; not even in these poor old eyes of mine.' And when you read, 'the Lamb is the light thereof,' then I think Jesus will be there, and that's what I like best of all."
"Up there, I suppose," she said, pointing to the bright sky above.
"But, grannie, there was a gentleman at our house yesterday, and I heard him talking with my father, and he said he thought heaven was in the sun. So I thought I would ask you, because you always know so much about it. Do you think it is in the sun?"
"Sister Mary said she thought heaven would be where God was."
"So I think, child; and I don't think it's the pearls, and gold, and all those things you read about, that make it either; for I think any place would be heaven, if we found Jesus there. This old room has been pretty near it, sometimes."
Nannie turned to the 14th chapter of John, which she knew grannie loved to hear, and commenced reading.
While she is reading, let us go down the street to the lane--bordered with trees--walk up the narrow footpath, and over the stile just by the blackberry-bushes, across the field to the little garden, and through the borders of pinks and marigolds, to the white cottage where Nannie lives. You can come to it by the street, if you choose, and you may come in under the great elm-tree, by the gate; but then the street is so dusty, and you miss seeing the little garden with its bright flowers; and the blossoms in the lane smell so sweetly, that it is quite worth while going that way. But here we are, before the door, on which we read, in bright letters, "Dr. Merry;" for Nannie's name is Nannie Merry, and Nannie's father is a doctor. He is doctor in a pleasant little town that is situated on the banks of a narrow river. I don't think you could find either the town or the river on your maps, if you should try; so there would be no use in telling you their names. It was a pleasant town, however, with its large elm-trees, and pretty white cottages, with here and there a large house, where the grandest people lived.
But Nannie's father was only a country doctor, and didn't live in a very large house. You can see for yourself that it is only a white cottage, with green blinds, and a long porch in front, covered with sweetbriar and honeysuckle. But the people that live in the house are quite as pleasant as the house itself, or even as the people that live in the large brick house. After Dr. Merry comes Mrs. Merry, or Nannie's mother, who is, like most mothers, very kind and good; then sister Mary, who is grown up, and Nannie thinks the best sister ever was; then Belle, who is very pretty, and about twelve years old; John and Charlie, who are, like most boys, great teasers, and Nannie sometimes thinks a good deal worse than most boys--but then, Charlie is only four years old, so there is some excuse for him. Lastly, we have Nannie herself, who is--well, we shall find out what she is before our story is finished. She is nine years old, "nearly ten," and would feel offended if we left that out. But here she comes from Grannie Burt's, so we must stop talking about her. She is coming by the lane just as we did, running at first, then a little slower, till at last she stops, for her sister Mary is weeding one of the pretty borders in the little garden.
"O Mary! grannie thinks just as you do about heaven; I don't think Mr. Brown knows so much about it as she does."
"Why not, Nannie?"
"Oh, because grannie is almost there, Mary,--she ought to know!"
"What makes you think grannie is almost there?"
"Why, she said so; and then she loves to hear about heaven, just as I did about home when I was at Aunt Sarah's."
"Sometimes," she answered, while with her little shoe she played with the pebbles.
"Not always! Nannie; when don't you like to hear about it?"
"And what do you like to hear about it always?"
"I like to hear about golden streets, and the beautiful water, and the trees, and the harps of the angels, and their golden crowns."
"And what don't you like to hear about?"
The little foot moved backwards and forwards a good while, and when Nannie did speak, she spoke almost as if she were afraid to do so.
"I don't like to hear about its always being Sunday there."
"Why, Nannie, don't you like Sunday here?"
"Maybe I can help you a little, Nannie. Do you ever get tired of loving father?"
"Why, no; I should never get tired of that, I'm sure he never gets tired of loving me."
"Do you get tired of showing you love him by trying to please him?"
"No, Mary; but--"
"Never mind the 'buts' till I have done. Now, God is 'Our Father,' and all we have to do in heaven is to love him, and to show how very much we love him by trying to do all we can to please him. Do you think you'll get tired of that?"
"No. But that isn't like Sunday."
"What do we do on Sunday, Nannie?"
"Why, go to church and--"
"Yes; but what do we go to church for?"
"Oh, I see now!" said Nannie, her face brightening up,--"oh, I see! We worship God on Sunday, and that's what we'll do always in heaven; isn't it, Mary?"
"Oh yes! I felt very sorry, because I knew I ought to love to think about heaven! And so I think I do. But Belle said they did nothing but sing hymns there, and she didn't see what there was so very pleasant in that."
"Belle ought not to talk so. But what did you say to her?"
"I said," Nannie answered, holding down her head, "I thought the reason she didn't like it was because she was not good; because all good people liked to hear about heaven."
"That's the reason, I think," said sister Mary, as she gathered up her weeds for Nannie to take away. Nannie carried them off, thinking all the time, "Oh dear, I wish I were as good as sister Mary!" If wishes would make any one good, Nannie would have been very good long before this time. "At anyrate," said Nannie, as she emptied the weeds into the ash-heap, "I will try. Father says there are weeds in our hearts, and we can pull them up. I mean to try."
We shall see in the next chapter how Nannie succeeds in pulling up the weeds.
"IF THY BROTHER SIN AGAINST THEE, FORGIVE HIM."
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