Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the fourth chapter of Little Men.

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My name is Brie Carlyle and I love to read and wanted to share my passion with listeners like you.

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Today we'll be continuing Little Men by Louisa May Alcott chapter Four Stepping Stones when Nat went into school on Monday morning, he quaked inwardly for now, he thought, he should have to display his ignorance before them all.

But Mr.

Bear gave him a seat in the deep window where he could turn his back on the others, and Franz heard him say his lessons there so no one could hear his blunders or see how he blotted his copy book.

He was truly grateful for this, and toiled away so diligently that Mr.

Bear said, smiling when he saw his hot.

Face and inky fingers, don't work so hard, my boy.

You'll tire yourself out, and there's time enough.

But I must work hard, or I can't catch up with the others.

They know heaps, and I don't know anything, said Nat, who had been reduced to a state of despair by hearing the boys recite their grammar, history and geography with what he thought amazing ease and accuracy.

You know a good many things which.

They don't, said Mr.

Bear, sitting down beside him, while Franz led a class of small students through the intricacies of the multiplication table.

Do I?

And that looked utterly incredulous.

Yes.

For one thing, you can keep your temper, and Jack, who is quick at numbers, cannot.

That is an excellent lesson, and I think you've learned it well.

Then you can play the violin and not one of the lads can, though they want to do it very much.

But best of all, Nat, you really care to learn something, and that is half the battle.

It seems hard at first, and you will feel discouraged, but plod away, and things will get easier and easier as you go on.

Nat's face had brightened more and more as he listened, for as small as the list of his learning was, it cheered him immensely to feel that he had anything to fall back upon.

Yes, I can keep my temper.

Father's beating taught me that, and I can fiddle, though I don't know where the Bay of Biscay is, he thought with a sense of comfort impossible to express.

Then he said aloud, and so earnestly that Demi heard him, I do want to learn, and I will try.

I never went to school, but I couldn't help it.

And if the fellows don't laugh at me, I guess I'll get on first rate.

You and the lady are so good to me.

They shan't laugh at you.

If they do.

I'll tell them not to.

Cried Demi, quite forgetting where he was.

The class stopped in the middle of seven times nine, and everyone looked up to see what was going on, thinking that a lesson in learning to help one another was better than arithmetic.

Just then Mr.

Bear told them about Nat, making such an interesting and touching little story out of it that the good hearted lads all promised to lend him a hand, and felt quite honored to be called upon to impart their stories of wisdom to the chap who fiddled so capitally.

This appeal established the right feeling among them, and Nat had few hindrances to struggle against, for everyone was glad to give him a boost up the ladder of learning till he was stronger.

Much study was not good for him, however, and Mrs.

Jo found various amusements in the house for him while the others were at their books.

But his garden was his best medicine, and he worked away like a beaver, preparing his little farm sowing his beans, watching eagerly to see them grow and rejoicing over each green leaf and slender.

Stalk that shot up and flourished in.

The warm spring weather.

Never was a garden more faithfully hoed.

Mr.

Bear really feared that nothing would find time to grow.

Nat kept up such a stirring of the soil, so he gave him easy jobs in the flower garden or among the strawberries where he worked, and hummed as busily as the bees, booming all about him.

This is the crop I like best, Mrs.

Bear used to say as she pinched the once thin cheeks, now getting plump and ruddy, or stroked the bench shoulders that were slowly straightening up with healthful work, good food, and the absence of that heavy burden poverty.

Demi was his little friend, Tommy his patron, and Daisy the comforter of all his woes.

For though the children were younger than he.

His timid spirit found a pleasure in their innocent society, and rather shrunk from the rough sports of the elder lads.

Mr.

Lawrence did not forget him but sent clothes and books, music and kind messages and now and then came out to see how his boy was getting on or took him into town to a concert, on which occasions Nat felt himself translated into the 7th Heaven of Bliss.

For he went to Mr.

Lawrence's great house, saw his pretty wife and little fairy of a daughter, had a good dinner, and was made so comfortable that he talked and dreamed of it for days and nights afterward.

It takes so little to make a child happy that it is a pity in a world so full of sunshine and pleasant things that there should be any wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts.

Feeling this, the bears gathered up all the crumbs they could find to feed their flock of hungry sparrows, for they were not rich except in charity.

Many of Mrs.

Jo's friends who had nurseries, sent her their toys, of which their children so soon tired.

And in mending these Nat found an employment that just suited him.

He was very neat and skilful with those slender fingers of his, and passed many a rainy afternoon with his gum, bottle, paint box, and knife, repairing furniture, animals and games, while Daisy was dressmaker to the dilapidated dolls.

As fast as the toys were mended, they were put carefully away in a certain drawer, which was to furnish forth a Christmas tree for all the poor children of the neighborhood.

That being the way the Plumfield boy celebrated the birthday of him who loved the poor and blessed the little ones.

Demi was never tired of reading and explaining his favorite books, and many a pleasant hour did they spend in the old willow, reveling over Robinson Crusoe, Arabian Nights, edgeworth's Tales, and the other dear immortal stories that will delight children for centuries to come.

This opened a new world to Nat, and his eagerness to see what came next in the story helped him on till he could read as well as anybody, and felt so rich and proud with his new accomplishment that there was danger of his being as much of a bookworm as Demi.

Another helpful thing happened in a most unexpected and agreeable manner.

Several of the boys were in business, as they called it, for most of them were poor, and knowing that they would have their own way to make by and by, the bears encouraged any efforts at independence.

Tommy sold his eggs, jack speculated in livestock.

Franz helped in the teaching and was paid for it.

Ned had a taste for carpentry, and a turning lathe was set up for him, in which he turned all sorts of useful or pretty things and sold them, while Demi constructed water mills, whirly gigs, and unknown machines of an intricate and useless nature.

And disposed of them to the boys.

Let him be a mechanic if he.

Likes, said Mr Bear.

Give a boy a trade and he is independent.

Work is wholesome, and whatever talent these lads possess, be it for poetry or ploughing, it shall be cultivated and made.

Useful to them if possible.

So when Nat came running to him one day to ask with an excited face, can I go and fiddle for some people who are to have a picnic in our woods?

They will pay me, and I'd like to earn some money as the other boys do, and fiddling is the only way I know how to do it.

Mr Bear answered readily.

Go and welcome.

It is an easy and a pleasant way to work, and I am glad it is offered you.

Nat went and did so well that when he came home he had $2 in his pocket, which he displayed with intense satisfaction, as he told how much he enjoyed the afternoon, how kind the young people were, and how they had praised his dance music and promised to have him again.

It is so much nicer than fiddling in the street, for then I got none of the money, and now I have it all and a good time besides.

I'm in business now, as well as Tommy and Jack, and I like it ever so much, said Nat proudly, patting the old pocketbook and feeling like a millionaire.

Already he was in business truly, for picnics were plenty as summer opened and Nat's skill was in great demand.

He was always at liberty to go if lessons were not neglected and if the picnickers were respectable young people.

For Mr Bear explained to him that a good plain education is necessary for everyone, and that no amount of money should hire him to go where he might be tempted to do wrong.

Nat quite agreed to this.

And it was a pleasant sight to see the innocent hearted lad go driving away in the gay wagons that stopped at the gate for him.

Or to hear him come fiddling home tired but happy, with his well earned money in one pocket.

And some goodies from the feast for Daisy.

Or little Ted, whom he never forgot.

I'm going to save up till I get enough to buy a violin for myself, and then I can earn my own living, can't I?

He used to say, as he brought his dollars to Mr Bear to keep.

I hope so, Nat, but we must get you strong and hearty first and put a little more knowledge into this musical head of yours.

Then Mr Lori will find you a.

Place somewhere, and in a few years.

We will all come to hear you play in public with much congenial work, encouragement and hope.

Nat found life getting easier and happier every day, and made such progress in his music lessons that his teacher forgave his slowness and some other things, knowing very well, that where the heart is, the mind works best.

The only punishment the boy ever needed for neglect of more important lessons was to hang up the fiddle and the bow for a day.

The fear of losing his bosom friend entirely made him go at his books with a will, and having proved that he could master the lessons, what was the use of saying, I can't?

Daisy had a great love of music and a great reverence for anyone who could make it, and she was often found sitting on the stairs outside Nat's door while he was practicing.

This pleased him very much, and he played his best for that one quiet little listener, for she never would come in, but preferred to sit sewing her gay patchwork or tending one of her many dolls with an expression.

Of dreamy pleasure on her face that made Aunt Jo say with tears in her eyes so like my Beth, and go softly by lest even her familiar presence mar the child's sweet satisfaction.

Nat was very fond of Mrs.

Bear, but found something even more attractive in the good professor, who took fatherly care of the shy, feeble boy who had barely escaped with his life from the rough sea on which his little boat had been tossing rudderless for twelve years.

Some good angel must have been watching over him, for though his body had suffered, his soul seemed to have taken little harm, and came ashore as innocent as a shipwrecked baby.

Perhaps his love of music kept it sweet, in spite of the discord all about him.

Mr.

Laurie said so, and he ought to know, however that might be.

Father Bear took pleasure in fostering poor Nat's virtues and in curing his faults, finding his new pupil as docile and affectionate as a girl.

He often called Nat his daughter when speaking of him to Mrs.

Jo, and she used to laugh at his fancy, for Madame liked manly boys, and thought Nat amiable, but weak, though you never would have guessed it, for she petted him as she did Daisy, and he thought her very delightful woman.

One fault of Nat's gave the bears much anxiety, although they saw how it had been strengthened by fear and ignorance.

I regret to say that Nats sometimes told lies, not very black ones, seldom getting deeper than gray, and often the mildest of white fibs.

But that did not matter.

A lie is a lie, and though we all tell many polite untruths in this queer world of ours, it is not right, and everybody knows it.

You cannot be too careful.

Watch your tongue and eyes and hands, for it is easy to tell and.

Look and act untruth, said Mr.

Bear in one of the talks he had with Nat about his chief temptation.

I know it, and I don't mean to, but it's so much easier to get along if you ain't very fussy about being exactly true.

I used to tell him because I was afraid of Father and Niccolo, and now I do sometimes, because the boys laugh at me.

I know it's bad, but I forget.

And Nat looked much depressed by his sins.

When I was a little lad, I.

Used to tell lies.

Ah, what fibs they were.

And my old grandmother cured me of it.

How do you think my parents had talked and cried and punished?

But still did I forget.

As you then, said the dear old grandmother.

I shall help you to remember, and put a check on this unruly part.

With that she drew out my tongue and snipped to the end with her.

Scissors till the blood ran.

That was terrible, you may believe, but it did me much good because it was sore for days, and every word I said came so slowly that I had time to think.

After that I was more careful and got on better, for I feared the big scissors.

Yet the dear grandmother was most kind to me in all things, and when she lay dying far away in Nuremberg, she prayed that little Fritz might love God and tell the truth.

I never had any grandmothers, but if you think it will cure me, I'll let you snip my tongue, said Nat heroically, for he dreaded pain, yet did wish to stop fibbing.

Mr.

Bear smiled, but shook his head.

I have a better way than that.

I tried it once before and it worked well.

See now, when you tell a lie, I will not punish you.

But you shall punish me.

How?

Asked Nat, startled at the idea.

You shall fool me in the good old fashioned way.

I seldom do it myself, but it may make you remember.

Better to give me pain than to feel it yourself.

Strike you?

Oh, I couldn't, cried Nat.

Then mind that tripping tongue of thine.

I have no wish to be hurt, but I would gladly bear much pain to cure this fault.

This suggestion made such an impression on Nat that for a long time he set a watch upon his lips and was desperately accurate, for Mr.

Bear judged rightly that love of him would be more powerful with Nat than fear for himself.

But alas, one sad day Nat was off his guard, and when Peppery Emile threatened to thrash him if it was he who had run over his garden and broken down his best hills of corn, nat declared he didn't, and then was ashamed to own up that he did do it.

When Jack was chasing him the night before, he thought no one would find out, but Tommy happened to see him.

And when Emile spoke of it a day or two later, tommy gave his evidence and Mr.

Bear heard it.

School was over, and they were all standing about in the hall, and Mr.

Bear had just sat down on the straw set tea to enjoy his frolic with Teddy.

But when he heard Tommy and saw Nat turn scarlet and look at him with a frightened face, he put the little boy down, saying, go to thy.

Mother, Bubchin, I will come soon, and.

Taking Nat by the hand, led him into the school and shut the door.

The boys looked at one another in silence for a minute, then Tommy slipped out and peeping in at the half closed blinds, beheld a sight that quite bewildered him.

Mr.

Bear had just taken down the long rule that hung over his desk, so seldom used that it was covered with dust.

My eye.

He's going to come down heavy on Nat this time.

Wish I hadn't told, thought good natured Tommy, for to be Frued was the deepest disgrace at this school.

You remember what I told you last.

Time, said Mr Bear sorrowfully, not angrily.

Yes, but please don't make me.

I can't bear it.

Cried Nat, backing up against the door with both hands behind him and a face full of distress.

Why don't he up and take it like a man?

I would, thought Tommy, though his heartbeat fast at the sight.

I shall keep my word, and you must remember to tell the truth.

Obey me not.

Take this and give me six good strokes.

Tommy was so staggered by this last speech that he nearly tumbled down the bank, but saved himself and hung onto the window ledge, staring in with eyes as round as the stuffed owls on the chimney piece.

Nat took the rule, for when Mr.

Bear spoke in that tone, everyone obeyed him, and looking as scared and guilty as if about to stab his master, he gave two feeble blows on the broad hand held out to him.

Then he stopped and looked up, half blind with tears.

But Mr bear said steadily, go on and strike harder, as of seeing that.

It must be done.

And eager to have the hard task soon over, Nat drew his sleeve across his eyes and gave two more quick, hard strokes that reddened the hand yet hurt the giver more.

Isn't that enough?

He asked in a breathless sort of tone.

Two more was all the answer, and he gave them, hardly seeing where they fell, then threw the rule all across the room and hugging the kind hand in both his own, laid his face down on it, sobbing out in a passion of love and shame and penitence, I will remember.

Oh, I will.

Then Mr.

Bear put an arm about him and said in a tone as compassionate as it had just now been.

Firm, I think you will ask the dear God to help you and try.

To spare us both another scene like this.

Tommy saw no more, for he crept back to the hall looking so excited and sober that the boys crowded round him to ask what was being done to Nat.

In a most impressive whisper, Tommy told them, and they looked as if the sky was about to fall for this reversing the order of things almost took their breath away.

He made me do the same thing once, said Emile, as if confessing a crime of the deepest die.

And you hit him, dear old Father Bear.

By thunder, I'd just like to see you do it now, said Ned, colloring Emil in a fit of righteous wrath.

It was ever so long ago, I'd rather have my head cut off than do it now.

And Emil mildly laid Ned on his back instead of cuffing him as he would have felt it his duty to do on any less solemn occasion.

How could you?

Said Demi, appalled at the idea.

I was hopping mad at the time and thought I shouldn't mind a bit.

Rather like it, perhaps.

But when I'd hit uncle one good crack, everything he had ever done for me came into my head all at once somehow, and I couldn't go on.

No, sir.

If he laid me down and walked on me, I wouldn't have minded, I felt so mean.

And Emile gave himself a good thump in the chest to express his sense of remorse for the past.

Nat's crying like anything and feels no end.

Sorry.

So don't let say a word about it, will we?

Said tender hearted Tommy.

Of course we won't.

But it's awful to tell lies.

And Demi looked as if he found the awfulness much increased when the punishment fell upon the sinner but his best uncle Fritz.

Suppose we all clear out so Nat can cut upstairs if he wants to, proposed Franz and led the way to the barn, their refuge in troubulous times.

Nat did not come to dinner, but Mrs.

Jo took some up to him and said a tender word which did him good, though he could not look at her.

By and by the lads playing outside heard the violin and said among themselves, he's all right now.

He was all right, but felt shy about going down till opening his door to slip away into the woods, he found Daisy sitting on the stairs with neither work nor doll, only her little handkerchief in her hand, as if she had been mourning for her captive friend.

I'm going to walk.

Wanna come?

Asked Nat, trying to look as if nothing was the matter, yet feeling very grateful for her silent sympathy because he fancied everyone must look upon him as a wretch.

Oh, yes.

And Daisy ran for her hat, proud to be chosen as a companion by one of the big boys.

The others saw them go, but no one followed, for boys have a great deal more delicacy than they get credit for, and the lads instinctively felt that when in disgrace gentle little Daisy was their most congenial friend.

The walk did not good, and he came home quieter than usual, but looking cheerful again, and hung all over with Daisy chains made by his little playmate while he lay on the grass and told her stories.

No one said a word about the scene of the morning, but its effect was all the more lasting.

For that reason, perhaps, Nat tried his very best and found much help not only from the earnest little prayers he prayed to his friend in heaven, but also in the patient care of the earthly friend, whose kind hand he never touched, without remembering that it had willingly borne pain for his sake.

Thank you for joining Bite at a Time Books today while we read a.

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