Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag Vol. 1

were underneath--

  'Every flower to others given,
  Blossoms fair and sweet in heaven.'

The fourth was a picture of a curly-haired child sewing, with some very
large tears rolling down her cheeks and tumbling off her lap like
marbles, while some tiny sprites were catching and flying away with them
as if they were very precious--

  'Every tender drop that fell,
    Loving spirits caught and kept;
  And Patty's sorrows lighter grew,
    For the gentle tears she wept.'

'Oh, aunty! what does it all mean?' cried Patty, who had looked both
pleased and ashamed as she glanced from one picture to the other.

'It means, dear, that the goods and bads got into the bed-quilt in spite
of you, and there they are to tell their own story. The bun and the lost
tail, the posy you took to poor Lizzie, and the trouble you bore so
sweetly. It is just so with our lives, though we don't see it quite as
clearly as this. Invisible hands paint our faults and virtues, and
by-and-bye we have to see them, so we must be careful that they are good
and lovely, and we are not ashamed to let the eyes that love us best
read there the history of our lives.'

As Aunt Pen spoke, and Patty listened with a thoughtful face, mamma