that the slender stalk, which we have seen shaken by the summer breeze, bending in the corn-field under the yellow burden of harvest, is indeed the "staff of life," which, since the world began, has supported the toiling and struggling myriads of humanity on the mighty pilgrimage of being.—Edward Everett.
(1290)
GRATITUDE
A young girl in Scotland was in danger
of perishing in a storm, when the stream
was in flood. She vowed that if God would
save her life and help her in the future, she
would build a bridge over the dangerous
chasm. Her prayer was heard. She lived
to build the bridge, and to leave an endowment
for the poor of the parish. On the
keystone of the bridge were written these
words: "God and We." That was the
secret of success in her life-work.
(1291)
A missionary in China met an aged man who was measuring with the length of his body a pilgrimage of one hundred miles. He would kotow; that is, bump his head three times upon the ground, then prostrate himself full length; get up, repeat, and still repeat. When asked why he was doing this he said: "My son was very ill. I prayed and vowed to the god of health that if he would spare my son, I would measure with my body every mile of this pilgrimage to the tombs of my ancestors. He was spared to me. I must keep my vow. No one can help me. I must go alone."
Was he not presenting his body a living
sacrifice, mistaken, of course, in
form, but faithful in spirit?
(1292)
Out of gratitude to the girl who saved the lives of his three children when fire occurred at his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, William Landsberg cheerfully submitted himself to physicians at the Long Island College Hospital and allowed them to take forty square inches of skin from his body in order that it might be grafted upon the burned body of Miss Elsie Wobetta, who had been employed as a domestic at his home.
Landsberg agreed to the operation when he learned that it was necessary in order to save the girl's life. Earlier in the morning the physicians had already taken twenty square inches of skin from the unburnt portions of Miss Wobetta's body, but this was not nearly enough to cover her frightful burns, and her condition was too precarious to submit her to another shock.
Landsberg was notified, and he immediately quit work and went to the hospital, where he placed himself at the disposal of the surgeons.
"It is the least I can do for the girl who saved the lives of my little ones," he said calmly, when the doctors told him that the test would be a severe one.
He was placed on the operating table and the operation of removing the skin was performed. Strips of skin an inch wide and five inches long were taken from Landsberg's body.
The operation brought to light the heroic act on the part of Miss Wobetta that should entitle her to a Carnegie medal. Some time ago fire broke out in the Landsberg home. The upper part of the house was soon in flames and during all the excitement—it was early in the morning—no one seemed to think of the three children of Landsberg except this young domestic, who fought her way through the stifling smoke and flames until she reached the nursery. There, altho her own clothing was aflame and she was almost stifled by the smoke, she rescued the three small children and helped carry them to a place of safety.
She was frightfully burned on the arms, breast, side and back, and it was not thought for a long time that she could survive. For several weeks she lingered and the surgeons agreed that all that could save her life would be the grafting of new skin on the burned places that would not heal.
(1293)
See Investment Return; Rescue; Unselfishness.
GRATITUDE, UNCALCULATING
Henry Van Dyke, in The Outlook, expresses the spontaneous nature of true gratitude:
Do you give thanks for this, or that? No, God be thanked,
I am not grateful
In that cold calculating way, with blessings ranked
As one, two, three, and four—that would be hateful!
