Ellen's Idol

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1882 ... CHAPTER XVI. The Soldier's Fair. A Pew of the ladies in the village had.during the summer, started a Pair, and then for some reason or other decided to give it up. Miss Marsh was talking with 6ome of them one day, and on learning that quite a number of fancy articles had been made for it, and now were lying useless, the idea struck her that the children might add to them, and get up a little Pair of their own for the soldiers. So she Invited her Sabbath school class to her house one afternoon, and proposed it to them. "Oh! that's perfectly splendid!" cried Ellen, when she heard the plan. "I never heard any thing so nice; isn't it jolly, girls?" Ellen was very apt to express herself first, and most strongly on any subject; she was a sort of leader among her companions. Sometimes they rebelled against her dominion, but in this case there was but one mind. They would have the Fair; each child settled that point in a moment. No matter what objections might be raised, or what obstacles thrown in their way, they would have it, "if they worked day and night," as Lizzie Griswold heroically declared,--it would be such fun! They began to talk it over among themselves in quite an excited way, when Miss Marsh, who had been smiling, and quietly watching them for some time, interposed, and said there were several things to consider;--in the first place, their parent' consent. "Oh, that's easy enough to get," said Belle, who always had her own way at home. Most of the children, however, felt no more fears than she on this point, for was it not for the soldiers? They lived in Massachusetts, and their fathers and mothers were good patriots, as all Massachusetts' parents should be, and every thing that they could do, or help to do, for the brave men who have gone to fight ou...