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THE SECRET OF THE MOUNTAIN. By Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. There was once a little dark dwarf who lived deep down under a mountain. For a long time 110 one was bold enough to go near the cave where he worked. Although he was small, the dwarf was very, very old and had great power, for he knew all the secrets of the mountain. When the top of the mountain burst into flames, as it sometimes did, and sent up clouds of hot vapor and showers of stones, the peo ple who lived in the valley said, "The dwarf is setting the mountain on fh*e." When thun der rumbled and rolled about the peak, they whispered to one another, "The dwarf of the mountain is playing ball with the lion cubs and the young bears." When the winds howled from the mountain top down to the valley, they knew what that meant. "The dwarf is blowing the bellows at his forge," they said, "so that he can weld a blade that will never break." There were other stories about the dwarf. One was that he had hoards of gold and jewels for making crowns, another that he could shape keys for opening any chest of treasure in the world. Still another report had it that a live coal from his forge fire would burn for ever. It came about after a while that people be gan to grow braver about the strange little dwarf, and some of the villagers decided to go to see him. The Mayor's son went first, with a troop of guardsmen to protect him. He wanted a gold crown so that he might be a king instead of ?a mayor like his father, and he pushed his way boldly to the entrance of the dwarf's cave. . There he found the dwarf waiting for him, a kind-faced little man, grimy from working in metals. He held a gold crown in his small, hard hands, and the jewels in it flashed as he placed it on the head of the kneeling boy. The Mayor's son hurried down the moun tain without even thanking the dwarf. "I am now the king!" boasted the youth. "The whole village must do as I command. Go ahead and bid the villagers come out and meet me," he told the guards. The soldiers hurried, and soon a great crowd was waiting for the return of the Mayor's son. But how they did laugh when they saw him ! He wore a paper crown decorated with spots of paint instead of jewels. There were still others who wanted to be rich and powerful and to understand the se crets of the mountain, and they, too, took cour age and tried their luck with the dwarf. One and all they found him kind and obliging. He was always waiting for them under the moun tain, and whatever they asked for he gave them. But somehow, although they received exact ly what they asked for, they were not satis fied. The key that the dwarf forged for one of them opened the village miser's chest, but the chest was empty ! A coal from his forge fire turned to ashes before the villagers coidd fire their neighbors' village with it. "Per haps," they said, "the dwarf is not so power ful, after all." At the base of the mountain there was a little barren farm that was tilled by a shep herd boy for his mother. Stony and full of weeds and swept by storms, it was the worst bit op land for miles round; but all at once a surprising change came over it. The kitchen Children's Sermon God's Whisper. "A still small voice." 1 Kings 19:12. Elijah, God's prophet, had a wonderful time on Mount Carmel. He was there as the proph et of God and there were 450 prophets of Baal, who was a heathen god. The people were all worshipping Baal and Elijah told them they ought to worship God. He told them that he could prove that lie was the only true God. He told the priests of Baal to build -an altar amd put a sacrifice on it and said he would build one, too. Then each was to pray to his God and the god that sent fire down from heaven to burn up the sacrifice would be the true God. The prophets of Baal prayed nearly all day, but Baal did not send any fire. Then Elijah prayed and God sent the fire. Then the people all said, "The Lord He is God." These prophets had been so wicked in mak ing the people worship a heathen god, instead of the true God, that God told Elijah that he must have them all killed. When the people got back to the city that night and told the queen that all the prophets of Baal had been killed she got mad with Elijah and sent him word she was going to have him killed. When Elijah got her message he got scared and ran away from the city, and a long way off into a part of the country where nobody could find him. He got very tired and hungry. He laid down and went to sleep. God sent an an gel to wake him up and give him something to eat and to drink. Then Elijah went up on a mountain and went into a cave to hide himself. But God told him to go and stand at the door of the cave. A great storm came up and the wind blew so hard that the rocks on the side of the mountain were broken. After that there was a great earthquake that shook the whole mountain. And there came lightning. God sent these things to show Elijah how powerful He was. But He did not talk to Kli ;ah in the storm or the earthquake or the fire. After they were all over He spoke to him in a "still small voice," or, as we would say, He whispered to Elijah. God did this because He did not want to seare Elijah. He talked to him then and told him what He wanted him to do Did you ever hear God whispering to you? You have heard Him very often but it may be you did not know that it was God. Here are some of the ways God whispers to you. On these beautiful spring days if you will go out into your yards and into the woods and fields, where the flowers that God has made are blooming so pretty and sweet, they will tell yon that you ought to make your lives so beau tiful and sweet that other people will want to be with you just as you like to be with the flowers. If you will go out into the woods early in ihe morning, you will hear the birds singing their sweet, happy songs. God made them and He malte them love to sing. They tell us that we ought to make our hearts as well as our voices sing to thank God for being so good to us, and that we ought to do all that we can to make others happy. "When you read the Bible God is whispering to you. He tells you many wonderful things, but nobody else can hear just what He is say ing to you then. He tells you how He loves you and how Jesus loves you, and that He wants you to love Him. He tells you a great many things that He wants you to do and He tells you many things that He does not want you to do. Every time you read a verse in the Bible or repeat one that you have learned, God is whispering to you. Another way that He whispers to you is down in your own heart. Sometimes von are thinking about doing something ami down in your heart something seems to say: "You ought to do this, because it is right." Another time you hear somebody say, "Don't do that, it is wrong." You look around and you don't see anybody, and then you know that it. was something in your heart that was talking to you. Some people call it conscience that talks this way, but it is just God that is whispering to you. He likes to whisper to you, and- He wants you to do what He tells you, without His having to speak aloud to you so that other people can hear. You can whisper to God too. When you kneel down and say your prayers, so that nobody else can hear you, you are whispering to Him. And any time you can whisper in your heart and tell Him that you love Him and that you are thankful to Him for being so good to you And then you can ask Him to help you do what He wants you to do. You know how you love to have a friend that you can whisper to and have secrets with. Well, God is our friend and we can whisper' to Him and He will whisper to us. We can have all the secrets we want with Him and He will never tell any of them. Just listen today and see how often God will whisper to you. garden grew rich with vegetables and green with rare herbs. A small patch of grain near the house became yellower and thicker than any other grain in the village. The grass in the field grew again as soon as the sheep cropped it. The woman's one cow gave plen tiful milk as thick as cream. Yet the on|y worker on the little farm was the shepherd lad in his blue smock, with a bright scythe over his shoulder. But the scythe was a very strange one. The people all noticed that. Tn the raornisg, when the lad swung it briskly, it flashed like jewels and made a bright circle round his Jiead, like a golden crown. As he carried it home over his shoulder at night it glowed like a blade" of fire. It was a magic scythe, for it seemed to be a key that had opened all the riches of the mountain for the plain lad who worked with it to take care of his mother. "We should like to buy your scythe," the villagers told him at last. "We will pay you a fortune for it. And we will pay you another fortune for your farm." But the shepherd lad shook his head. "The dwarf of the mountain welded it for me," he said, "and haloid me ? " "What did he tell you?" cried the people. '.Perhaps 'twas how to make another scythe!" "He said," replied the lad, " 'metal to work with and earth to work in.' " The people could not understand, and they went off sulking. But that was the secret of the mountain, and the dwarf had kept it many years. The powers of the mountain were not its fire, or its wild beasts, or its storms, but the iron it held for making tools and the good earth over its heart that would yield rich harvests. The shepherd boy waf^ the first person the dwarf ha<f ever found who was worthy to- know the sccret. ? Youth's Companion.