Billy Wiggs was differently constituted; responsibilities rested upon him as lightly as the freckles on his nose.  When occasion or his mother demanded he worked to good purposes with a tenacity that argued well for his future success, but for the most part he played and fought and got into trouble with the aptitude characteristic of the average small boy.

It was Mrs. Wiggs’s boast that her three little girls had geography names; first came Asia, then Australia.  When the last baby arrived, Billy had stood looking down at the small bundle and asked anxiously:  “Are you goin’ to have it fer a boy or a girl, ma?” Mrs. Wiggs had answered:  “A girl, Billy, an’ her name’s Europena!”

On this particular Sunday morning Mrs. Wiggs bustled about the kitchen in unusual haste.

“I am goin’ to make you all some nice Irish pertater soup fer dinner,” she said, as she came in from the parlor, where she kept her potatoes and onions.  “The boys’ll be in soon, an’ we’ll have to hurry and git through ’fore the childern begin to come to Sunday-school.”

For many years Sunday afternoon had been a trying time in the neighborhood, so Mrs. Wiggs had organized a Sunday-school class at which she presided.

“If there don’t come Chris an’ Pete a’ready!” said Asia, from her post by the stove; “I bet they’ve had their dinner, an’ jes’ come early to git some of ours!”

“Why, Asia!” exclaimed Mrs. Wiggs, “that ain’t hospit’le, an’ Chris with one leg, too!  ’T ain’t no trouble at all.  All I got to do is to put a little more water in the soup, an’ me and Jim won’t take but one piece of bread.”

When Jim and Billy came in they found their places at the table taken, so they sat on the floor and drank their soup out of tea-cups.

“Gee!” said Billy, after the third help, “I’ve drinken so much that when I swallers a piece er bread I can hear it splash!”

“Well, you boys git up now, an’ go out and bring me in a couple of planks to put acrost the cheers fer the childern to set on.”

By two o ’clock the Sunday-school had begun; every seat in the kitchen, available and otherwise, was occupied.  The boys sat in the windows and on the table, and the girls squeezed together on the improvised benches.  Mrs. Wiggs stood before them with a dilapidated hymn-book in her hand.

“Now, you all must hush talking so we kin all sing a hymn; I’ll read it over, then we’ll all sing it together.

    ’When upon life’s billers you are tempest tossed,
    When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,
    Count yer many blessin’s, name ’em one by one,
    An’ it will surprise you what the Lord hath done!’”

Clear and strong rose the childish voices in different keys and regardless of time, but with a genuine enthusiasm that was in itself a blessing.  When they had sung through the three stanzas Mrs. Wiggs began the lesson.

“What did we study ’bout last Sunday?” she asked.