fig ( .'-. 
 
 
 
 
 LITTLE W 
 
 A TE 1 
 
 SUN D 
 
 N, 
 
t 
 
THE 
 
 JTTLE WAIF 
 
 IN THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 
 
 -*-♦♦- 
 
 
 UNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 
 
 SOU MULBERRY-STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 The light-house stood on a strip 
 of land that ran out into the sea, 
 Do yon know what a light-house is 
 for ? Did you ever see one ? No, 
 it may be not. It is a tall stone 
 tower built near the sea. In the top 
 of it a light is kept, which may be 
 seen afar. off. In the dark night 
 
4 LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 when the storm is out on the sea, 
 and there is no light to show the 
 land, the great ships that sail on the 
 sea might be cast on shore and brok- 
 en to pieces. But when they see 
 this light they know where they are, 
 and so they try to keep off the 
 
 shore. 
 
 Many ships had been saved by 
 the lights that were kept in this 
 light-house built on the long strip 
 that ran out into the sea. Sand-bars 
 lay all along the shore on both sides. 
 
LITTLE WAIF. O 
 
 II was a bad place for ships to come 
 near, and if no light had been there 
 many a ship would have gone to 
 pieces on the sand-banks. 
 
 An old man and his wife lived in 
 the light-house, and kept the light 
 with great care. By day they would 
 put in new wick and fill it with oil, 
 and all the long night when the clock 
 struck the hours they would take 
 turns and go up the steep iron steps 
 to trim the lamp and keep its light 
 from going out. Here they had 
 
G LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 lived a long time. Two or throe 
 little huts on the shore nearby were 
 all the houses that were any where 
 in sight. It was a lone place, but 
 the old folks loved their work, and 
 so they lived here quite content. 
 
 There was no child in the house. 
 Long, long years ago they had laid 
 away in the cold gronnd the dead 
 body of their only child, a noble boy, 
 and since that they had lived alone. 
 No, not ever since that. About six 
 years before ray story begins there 
 
LITTLE WAIF ' 
 
 was a great storm in that part of the 
 sea, and a fine ship went to pieces. 
 Many dead bodies came ashore, but 
 of all that sailed in that noble ship 
 only one was left alive, and that 
 one was a little child not more than 
 two or three years old. 
 
 She was found in the arms of a 
 dead woman, who was tied to a 
 plank and washed ashore. It was 
 thought that this woman must have 
 been her mother, but there was no 
 name on her clothes, and they only 
 
© LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 kept a tress of her long fair hair, and 
 her dead body was laid in a grave 
 under the willows. 
 
 The child was very like the moth- 
 er. She had blue eyes and fair hair, 
 but there was no mark on her 
 clothes, save on her white dress a 
 little vine was wrought in the shape 
 of the letter W. But the child could 
 not tell them her name, and that was 
 all they could learn of the past of her 
 life, that letter W. 
 
 And the old man and his wife 
 
LITTLE WAIF. 9 
 
 loved tlie child dearly because they 
 
 had none of their own ; and because 
 
 she looked so bright in their plain 
 
 rooms they kept her for their own. 
 
 For a long time they could not 
 
 think what to call her. The child 
 
 seemed to forget her own name, and 
 
 that was strange too, but so it was. 
 
 They would have it begin with W, 
 
 as her true name did, but what 
 
 should it be? They could think of 
 
 nothing to suit them, till at last the 
 
 old man said it should be Waif. 
 
 1* 
 
10 LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 Now a waif is a thing for which 
 there is no owner, a thing that has 
 been cast away. And jnst such a 
 thine: was this little child. She had 
 come to them, and there was no one 
 to claim her, and the old man said 
 that it was very fit that she should 
 be called Waif. And after that she 
 w r as known by this sweet and quaint 
 name to the old man and his wife 
 and all their friends. So she grew 
 up under their kind care, and their 
 old hearts grew young and fresh 
 
LITTLE WAIF. 11 
 
 again for having her to cheer them 
 with her glad laugh. 
 
 As she grew she found many ways 
 in which she could help the old 
 folks, and when her task was clone 
 she would walk out alone a long 
 way on the sea-shore, and pick up 
 pretty stones and fine shells until 
 her little apron was full of the bright 
 things. And then again she would 
 sit with the wives of the poor men 
 that got their food by fishing, arid 
 watch them and help them mend 
 
12 LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 their nets, and listen to their stories 
 of* the wild, wild sea, and the great 
 etorms that had come over it. 
 
 But the lamp in the tower was a 
 great wonder to her, and when she 
 knew the purpose for which it was 
 kept she looked at it with awe. 
 The first time they let her clean and 
 till it it seemed to her she could never 
 do it well enough ; but she soon saw 
 that she did it even better than the 
 old folks, and then it became a great 
 pleasure to her. Still they would 
 
LITTLE WAIF. ] 
 
 o 
 
 not let her take her turn to watch it 
 by night. She often asked them to 
 let her do it, but they said she -was 
 quite too young for that. She often 
 wished for the time when she would 
 be large enough, and at last she did 
 watch it one night all by herself) 
 just one night and no more. 
 
 The old man and his wife were 
 called away to visit a sick friend. 
 When they went they said they 
 would try to come back that night, 
 but lest they should not, they would 
 
14 LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 get a good man whom Waif loved, 
 and whom she called Uncle Jay, to 
 come and stay with her all night. 
 A woman and a little girl from one 
 of the houses near by came to stay 
 with her through the day, and at 
 five o'clock Uncle Jay would come. 
 After one o'clock a storm began to 
 blow up. They could see the black 
 clouds away across the sea, and 
 they knew that there would be a 
 great storm that night. When it 
 came near five it looked all the while 
 
LITTLE WAIF. 15 
 
 as if it would rain soon, and Waif 
 saw that the woman wanted to go 
 home to see to her house, and so she 
 said that she need not wait, that 
 Uncle Jay would soon be there, and 
 she had better go before the rain and 
 then she would not get wet. Waif 
 was a brave little girl, and so the 
 woman and little girl went away. 
 
 Waif went up to trim and light the 
 lamp in the tower, and then she 
 came down and spread the table for 
 tea, and put more wood on the fire, 
 
16 LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 and looked at the clock; it was half 
 past five. Then she took a long look 
 down the road for Uncle Jay, but he 
 was nowhere to be seen, and it was 
 growing quite dark. She took up a 
 book to read, and then she looked at 
 the clock again; it was six o'clock. 
 The next hour she looked at the 
 clock a great many times, and when 
 the hour hand pointed to seven she 
 began to fear that Uncle Jay would 
 not come. She went out of the door 
 and called to one of the huts, but the 
 
LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 17 
 
 noise of the wind, and the rain, and 
 the fierce waves drowned her voice, 
 and she went back into the tower. 
 Eight o'clock came, and then she 
 tried to make her little heart very 
 brave. She put the bars np to the 
 door, and went np into the lonely 
 tower to watch the light all night. 
 
 And it was a long night. The 
 wind roared, and the waves beat 
 madly against the tower till it seemed 
 as if they wonld wash it down. 
 Waif could not help thinking of the 
 
18 LTTTLE WAIF. 
 
 stories she bad heard of light-houses 
 that had been beaten down by the 
 fierce waves, and she began to fear 
 that such a fate might come upon her, 
 for the tower shook with the fury 
 of the storm. Her little hands shook 
 as she put fresh oil into the lamps and 
 wiped the clamp from the glass ; but 
 while she stood thus by the side of 
 the great lens there came as it were 
 a sweet voice to her ear that said : 
 
 " In thy need call to the Lord, 
 Fray to him in faith and trust." 
 

 LITTLE WAIF. 19 
 
 It seemed as if she had heard 
 these words often before, but where 
 or when she could not tell. She did 
 as they told her, and she knelt down 
 there and asked God to keep close 
 by her. Just then there came a 
 great wave quite over the tower. It 
 broke the glass on one side, and the 
 water came in, and if the poor child 
 had not prayed she would have gone 
 off in a swoon with fright. As it was 
 she stood firm, for she felt that she 
 was not alone, Soon she heard the 
 
 
20 LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 boom of a gun. She knew now that 
 some ship was nigh, and how she 
 hoped that her light might keep them 
 on the shore. She trimmed it anew, 
 and there she stood by it amid the 
 rain and spray that came in through 
 the broken glass all night long. She 
 tried to look out once, but she could 
 see nothing but the white caps danc- 
 ing madly about as if trying to reach 
 her, and she went back to her post 
 and waited till morning. 
 
 At last the gray dawn came, and 
 
LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 21 
 
 Waif strained her weary eyes till 
 she saw a large ship safe at anchor a 
 little way off, and then she leaned 
 her tired little head upon a bench 
 and dropped asleep. 
 
 Half an hour later a boat came 
 through the waves. The captain 
 wanted to tell the people in the light- 
 house that they had saved his ship. 
 The door was fast, and he got in at 
 the window; but as he found no one 
 below he went up into the tower, 
 and there, lying on the wet floor amid 
 
22 LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 the broken glass, lie found the little 
 girl asleep. He took her up gently, 
 bore her down stairs to her little bed, 
 and then called the men that came 
 with him to look at the child that 
 had saved them. Tears stood in the 
 eyes of all ; but when she softly said 
 in her sleep, "In thy need call to 
 the Lord," one of the men caught her 
 to his heart and wept aloud. That 
 verse he said was what his long-lost 
 wife used to sing to her little child 
 in her cradle. Poor Waif was too 
 
LITTLE WAIF. 23 
 
 tired to wake at once, and she slept 
 on while they stood beside her, till 
 the old folks came home and wept 
 over her and told her story to the 
 men. She slept even after this strange 
 man had claimed her for his child 
 whom he had long thought dead. 
 The long hair was brought out and 
 shown him. It was just like that of 
 his lost wife, and the little white 
 dress with the vine-wrought TV was 
 Winnie's. 
 
 how glad was little TVaif, now 
 
24 LITTLE WAIF. 
 
 Waif no longer, to find when she 
 awoke that she had saved the life of 
 her own father. How close she 
 clung to him with her arms around 
 his neck, and how glad he was to 
 take her away to his nice home far 
 beyond the sea. And the old folks 
 who had cared for her went and 
 lived with him till they died, and 
 Winnie was their sunshine and the 
 joy of her father's heart. 
 
 THE END. 
 
* m s%~.t' i ~ *> 
 
3