PEDIATRICS Vol. 43 No. 4 April 1969, pp. 509
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A SAD STORY READ BY CHILDREN IN A POPULAR READER OF THE 1860'S

T. E. C. Jr. M.D.

Children's readers of a century ago contained lessons far different from those in our contemporary ones. A good example of this difference is the following story in a widely read reader published in 1867.

Please Get It Now, Brother

"Hand me some water, brother, won't you?" said a little sick girl.

"In a minute, Bettie," said Harry, and his little hands went on as busy as ever with the trap he was making. Bettie's fevered cheek was again pressed to the pillow, and Harry soon forgot her request.

"Please get it now, brother," and her voice was very feeble. But Harry heard it and ran for the water, and soon was holding the cup to his sister's lips.

"Not this, please, but some fresh and cold water from the well," and she turned her head languidly away.

"0, don't be so particular! This is fresh; and I am so busy, I can not go to the well now-won't this do?"

Bettie no longer refused, but quietly took the cup which Harry offered her. It was the last time she ever called upon her brother for an act of kindness.

The next day she stood beside the River of Life, and drank of its cool waters. Sickness and death had passed away, and little Bettie would thirst no more.

But Harry could not be comforted. Of all who wept over the little brown coffin, as it lay on the table before the pulpit, there were none who shed more bitter tears than the boy who could not forget that he had refused the last request of his sister.