Kind Hearts

 

"He changes the times and the seasons;  He removes kings and establishes them.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning."
(Daniel 2:21)

Lenten Roses

Image courtesy/Freepik

Officially winter is over and spring is here.  For most of us, it has been a
hard winter despite the fact that the weather has been pleasant the greater
part of the time. There are things other than zero weather
and heavy snow falls that make hard winters.

But we know all about those things, and so I'll tell you of something else-
something as warming to the heart as a good fire on the hearth  
 is to a chilled body on a cold day.

I often have thought that we are a little old-fashioned here in the Ozark hills;
now I know we are, because we had a "working" in our neighborhood this winter.
That is a blessed, old-fashioned way of helping out a neighbor.

While the winter was warm, still it has been much too cold to be without firewood;
and this neighbor, badly crippled with rheumatism, was not able to get up 
 his winter's wood. With what little wood he could manage to chop,
the family scarcely kept comfortable.

So the men of the neighborhood gathered together one morning and
dropped in on him. With cross-cuts and axes, they took possession of 
his wood lot. At noon a wood saw was brought in, and it sawed briskly
all the afternoon. By night there was enough wood ready for the stove
to last the rest of the winter.

The women did their part too.  All morning they kept arriving with 
well-filled baskets, and at noon a long table was filled with a country
neighborhood dinner.  After the men had eaten and gone back to work,
the women and children gathered at the second table, fully as well
supplied as the first, and chatted pleasant neighborhood gossip
while they leisurely enjoyed the good things.  Then when the
dishes were washed, they sewed, knit, crocheted, and
talked for the rest of the afternoon.

It was a regular old-fashioned good time, and we all went home
with the feeling expressed by a newcomer when he said,
"Don't you know I'm proud to live in a neighborhood like this
where they turn out and help one another when its needed."

"Sweet are the uses of adversity" when it shows us the
kindness in our neighbors' hearts.

"Kind Hearts"
(March 1922)
Laura Ingalls Wilder
(1867-1957)
Prolific American writer
Author of the "Little House" series of books.

Taken from the book, "Little House In the Ozarks"
A Laura Ingalls Wilder Sampler
The Rediscovered Writings"

Laura Ingalls Wilder
Edited by Stephen W. Hines
(1991)
Guideposts Edition