Level 2
Lesson 20: A Kind Helper

Long ago, in a city by the sea, there once lived some boys and girls whose fathers were sailors. The fathers would go off in big ships that sailed far across the water. Often they were gone for many, many days. The little boys and girls did not see their fathers for a long time.

They missed their fathers very much. They looked forward eagerly to the time when they would come home again. They counted the days until the big ships would come sailing into the harbor once more.

And the mothers counted the days even more eagerly than the boys and girls did. For while the fathers were away, the mothers had all the care of the children. They had to feed them and clothe them.

Sometimes the money the fathers had left did not last until they came home again. Then it was harder than ever for the mothers. They needed money to buy clothes and food for the children. A little girl in the family needed a new dress, or a little boy needed a new coat. There was not enough money to buy the little new dress or the little new coat. Then the boy or girl had to go without.

Now in the same city by the sea there lived a kind lady named Dorcas. Dorcas knew about the little children whose fathers went away in big ships. She knew about the mothers who tried so hard to find food and clothing for the boys and girls while the fathers were away.

“I know what I will do,” said the lady named Dorcas. “I love those boys and girls. I want the little girls to have their new dresses. I want the little boys to have their new coats. I will get cloth and make clothes for them myself. Then the children will have something to wear. The mothers will not have such a hard time. It will be happier for everybody.

“Besides,” she added softly, “I know this is what Jesus would want me to do.” For Dorcas loved Jesus and wanted to help people, even as he had done.

So, very happily, she set to work. She got cloth and started to make up the little garments. She made dresses for the little girls. She made coats for the little boys. And when all were ready, she gave them to the children who needed them.

“See my pretty dress,” a little girl would say. “Dorcas made it for me.”

“See my nice new coat,” a little boy would say. “Dorcas made mine, too.”

And the mothers would say to each other. “Isn’t Dorcas kind and good to help us so much? She made a dress for my little girl. She made a coat for my little boy. Now we will get along just fine until the fathers come home again.”

When the fathers did at last come back from across the water, they too were told of the kind things Dorcas had done. So all of the people there in the city by the sea came to know of Dorcas, the kind lady who did so much to make mothers and fathers and boys and girls happy.