The Grey Story Book/In the Tall Grass

by Katherine Merritte Yates

In the Tall Grass

T'S the very finest ball I ever had in all my life," said Dicky, turning the smooth, white sphere over and over in his hands. "It's a fifty-cent base-ball, and I never had one better than fifteen cents before. Isn't it a fine one, Cousin Will?"

Cousin Will took the ball and felt it all over carefully and then bounced it on the step. "I never saw a better one," he said. "It's hard and it's springy, too. Let's try it. You stand over there by the fence and we'll pitch."

Dicky ran to the fence by the meadow and Cousin Will stood on the lawn near the flower beds, ready to throw. "Here she comes!" he shouted, and in a moment the smooth white ball was in Dicky's waiting hands. It was a delight just to feel it, and Dicky gave it a little squeeze and thought how good Uncle Charley was to send it to him.

Back it went to Cousin Will's hands, and then, for ten minutes it passed back and forth between the boys without once being dropped.

"I never saw such a ball," said Cousin Will. "It just comes right into my hands even when I don't half try to catch it. Now here comes a high one," and he threw it away up into the air.

Dicky's hands were ready; but though he jumped as high as he could when he saw it passing over his head, he could not quite reach it, and in a moment he heard it strike in the soft grass of the meadow.

"Too high for me!" he laughed, as he turned and climbed the fence and jumped down in the tall grass on the other side.

Will sat down on the lawn and began blowing on a blade of grass held between his thumbs, while he waited. By and by he grew tired of this and called out, "Hurry up, Dicky. Why don't you throw the ball?"

"I can't find it," came Dicky's voice from the fence. "The grass is so high that I can't see it. Come and help me."

Cousin Will ran across the lawn and climbed upon the fence. "Whew!" he whistled when he saw the tall grass and weeds. "You'll never find it in there. There isn't much use looking for it." But he jumped down and joined in the search.

For a long time they looked, but could not find the ball. Dicky was almost crying. "And it was the very nicest ball I ever had in my life," he said with a sob in his voice, "and I didn't play with it more than ten minutes!"

"Well, there's no use looking any longer," said Cousin Will, at last. "We surely can't find it now that the grass is all trampled down like this. I'm real sorry it's lost, but there's no use feeling bad about it. Let's go out to the orchard and get some apples."

But Dicky was not ready to go. To tell the truth, he felt as if he must cry in about a minute, and he was ashamed to do so before Cousin Will, who was ten years old, while he was only eight.

"Well, I'm going, anyway," said Cousin Will. "And I'll bring you one of those big yellow sweet apples. I won't be gone long."

When Will had climbed over the fence again, Dicky's tears began to fall so that he could hardly see as he stumbled around in the long grass. "I didn't want to lose that ball," he sobbed. Then suddenly he remembered something that he had heard his papa say not long ago. "I use Christian Science for everything, all day, and every day, and it always helps me." That was what he had said.

Dicky brushed his tears away. "I wonder if I could use it to find this ball," he thought. Then he climbed up on the fence and covered his eyes with his hand as he had seen Mamma do.

"Let me think," he said to himself, trying to remember what had been told him about handling things in Science. "How shall I go to work? First I must know that the things that Cousin Will said about not finding it, were not true. He didn't know it, but I've got to. And I've got to know that everything that isn't good isn't true. It isn't good to lose balls, nice new balls that you haven't played with more than ten minutes, and to feel bad about it. If God takes care of me, He must take care of all my things. God couldn't lose anything," and Dicky almost laughed at the idea of God losing things. "Of course He couldn't," he cried, "and if He can't, I can't. Just as if I could do something that God can't!"

Dicky did laugh now, and jumped down from the fence, and then he laughed harder than ever; for as he jumped down, he tumbled over into a heap, for one foot had landed upon something smooth and round which lay hidden in the grass close to the fence.

Cousin Will came running across the lawn with the big yellow apple. He had heard the laugh, and couldn't understand it. "You haven't found it, have you?" he called out.

"Yes, I have," shouted Dicky, gleefully, holding up the recovered ball. "It wasn't lost at all. It was right here by the fence all the time."

Cousin Will peered over the fence at the spot which Dicky pointed out. "Well, I don't see how you ever thought of looking there. I supposed that it went a lot farther over in the meadow than that. You surely are lucky. I didn't think you'd ever find it in the world."

"It wasn't luck," said Dicky, softly, to himself. "It was just knowing the truth, that it was not lost at all, and now I shall always know that God takes care of everything, and that Christian Science does help about everything, all day and every day."