AUTUMN LEAVES

ELBERT A. SMITH, Editor

Published Monthly for the Youth of the Reorganized
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by
the Herald Publishing House, Lamoni, Iowa.
Price One Dollar Per Year in Advance.

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Post-Office at Lamoni, Iowa

VOLUME 21

DECEMBER, 1908

NUMBER 12

OUR FATHER'S LOVE.

BY JAMES F. KEIR.

Our Father is above, his all protecting care,
His mercy, and his love we witness everywhere.

He knows our every need, and will those needs supply;
If we his word will heed, and on his strength rely.
Our faith will open wide the storehouse of the Lamb,
When we in him abide, our King,-the great I Am.
Let not our yesterday loom up as though a wall,
To hinder us to-day from heeding mercy's call.
Go forth, obey his will, and his commandments keep;
His promise he'll fulfill and you reward will reap.

"THE CLARKS' CHRISTMAS."

BY T. S. BROWN.

WISH I could find anything where I leave it."

Farmer Clark's just before bed-time trip to the barn to see that the stock was all right had apparently been unsatisfactory, from some cause; and, as he stamped the snow from his feet and shut the door with vigor, he

expressed his mind in the language quoted.

"What is wrong now?" asked Mrs. Clark, as she placed a chair for him before the glowing fire. She knew that before its genial warmth the clouds would soon melt out of her husband's usually good-natured countenance.

"What's wrong!" repeated Mr. Clark. But the frost was already melting in his tone. "The wrong is that I can't find anything lately, the boys scatter things around so; and to-night it's the hayfork. I left it in the stack when I fed the cow this morning, but of course it is not there now."

"Are you sure you left it there? It seems to me when Will Seely drove along and called you down to the road you had the fork in your hand."

"That's so," said farmer Clark, thoughtfully; "I did take it, and it sticks in the drift by the turn in the road; for I went down to the creek with Will and cut holes to water the cattle and forgot it when I came up. So, for once, the boys are not guilty; but there are plenty of times when they are."

"Perhaps they are; but we ought to be careful how we accuse them," said Mrs. Clark. She glanced at her husband and saw that his face was now serene, as usual. "You know when you looked

for your scythe-stone to sharpen the hay-knife a few days ago you could not find it and then you were positive the boys had lost it; and Bert and Arthur felt quite badly over it. You were so positive; but when you were looking for an extra rivet in the toolbox of your mowing-machine you found the scythe-stone just where you had used it and left it last September."

"Yes, that's so," said Mr. Clark; and he even smiled a little sheepishly to think he had twice tried to lay his own forgetfulness at his children's door.

"And then," continued Mrs. Clark, "you forget that you now give the boys more or less of your work to do; and of course they will need and use the same tools that you would for the same purpose; and you know you don't always put everything back just where you find it, and you can not expect more of them than of yourself." Mr. Clark gazed thoughtfully into the fire, and, after a moment's silence, he said:

"Yes, I suppose our boys are just as good and just as careful as anybody, and they have worked well this summer, for such little chaps. Yes, and playdays have not been very plenty either. But day after to-morrow will be Christmas Day; I suppose they will have a grand time then."

"Yes, they may have; but how? I have puzzled my head what to do for them, and I wish you could tell me. The little fellows, Eddie and Willie, will be satisfied with such as their stockings contain; but Bert and Arthur have got beyond that, and yet they will expect something."

"And, they deserve it, and ought to have it," said Mr. Clark, warming up to the subject; "and it ought to be something they can get some fun out of. I don't think it right to give them at such a time just what would prove a necessity anyhow; or something to wear that winter weather is sure to demand. We ought to get up something to play with."

Mrs. Clark heartily agreed with this view of the matter, and after a few minutes of silence she asked:

"Do you know if they have a sled?" There was a mild sarcasm in the question, a shaft directed at Mr. Clark's habit of becoming so interested in his own affairs that he found no time to notice how others were faring. But the sarcasm was lost on him, for he answered serenely,

"Yes, they've got one of some kind; it's out here back of the house."

"No, it isn't. Bert brought it into the kitchen and was going to mend it. Shall I show it to you?"

Without waiting for a reply Mrs. Clark opened the kitchen door and drew in the article that was under consideration. It proved to be a curious affair. One runner was an oak board an inch thick, and stood straight up and down; the other was a piece of pine scantling, which had been two inches thick but had been thinned down by the enterprising brothers, "so the tracks wouldn't look so queer," as the boys explained afterward. Then there were awkward, ill-made "beams," and altogether it was a sorry looking affair