The Plover That Guided a Little Girl to Her Parents

1895

Blessings On Wings — Birds That Seemed to Have Been Sent As Benefactors — 2

Mary, the small daughter of L. C. Hewett, a cattle dealer of Bell county, Tex., having gone with her parents and a party of friends on a picnic excursion to one of the neighboring mountain peaks, got lost in playing about by herself, being the only child in the crowd. Mrs. Hewett, being busily engaged with her friends, had suffered little Mary to wander about at her own sweet will, and ere long the unsuspecting child had climbed with her nimble young feet quite to the summit of the mountain. Like all the outcroppings of the region, this peak is composed of the rocks and fossils belonging to the cretacean period, so that no tracks might be left in the shaly soil. Besides the mountain is literally inwrapped by a dense growth of scrubby low growing cedars, making an almost impenetrable thicket. When little Mary discovered that she was alone on the mountain top, she did just what any child would do under the circumstances — that is, she began to call her mother. But a strong west wind carried her voice away, and no answer came from below.

Now, Mary was a good little Sunday school girl, and as she sat there desolate and alone on the mountain she remembered some of the sweet truths she had heard of one who is ever ready to help those that are lost, so what did she do but put up a prayer in her little baby way that he might help her. As she prayed she wondered in her innocence how anything big could make its way through all those sprawling, scraggy cedars, so she asked that a little bird might be sent to guide her.

The words had scarcely left her lips when she saw a plover flitting about in the cedars below her feet. Overjoyed at the sight, the child at once began to scramble down, the bird leading the way over rooks and cedar brush. It was a long and toilsome descent, with her little foot slipping and stumbling over the loose stones, but the bird flitted back and forth before her, and she did not despair.

By and by the journey came to an end, however. Mary heard voices and presently caught sight of her friends, who had just become aware of her absence. she ran to them joyfully, telling of the bird that had brought her down the mountain, and as they looked they saw a plover mount in air, winging its way eastward. — Philadelphia Times.