to her, and was not sure
whether it might hurt her.

"Now hearken: `Be careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto
God.' Again: `Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do.'
These are grand words, my dear."

"But they can't mean that Mrs Dorothy! Why, only think--if I were to
ask for a fortune, should I get it?"

"I must have two questions answered, my dear, ere I can tell that. Who
are the _you_ in these verses?"

"I thought it meant everybody."

"Not so. Listen again: `If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you,
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' 'Tis not
everybody doth that."

"But I don't know what that means, Mrs Dorothy."

"Then, my dear, you have answered my second question--Are you one of
these? For if you know not even what the thing is, 'tis but reasonable
to conclude you have never known it in your own person."

"I suppose not," said Gatty, sorrowfully.

"You see, my dear, 'tis to certain persons these words are said. If you
are not one of these persons, then they are not said to you."

"I am not." And Gatty shook her head sadly. "But, Mrs Dorothy, what
does it mean?"

"Dear," said the old lady, "when we do truly abide in Christ, we desire
first of all that His will be done. We wish for this or that; but we
wish more than all that He choose all things for us--that He have His
own way. Our wills are become His will. It follows as a certainty,
that they shall be done. We must have what we wish, when it is what He
wishes who rules all things. `Ye shall ask what ye will.' He guides us
what to ask, if we beg Him to do so."

"Is any one thus much perfect?" inquired Gatty, doubtfully.

"Many are trying for it," said Mrs Dolly. "There may be but few that
have fully reached it."

"But that makes us like machines, Mrs Dolly, moved about at another's
will."

"What, my dear! Love makes us machines? Never! The very last thing
that could be, child."

"I don't know much about love," said Gatty, drearily.

"About love, or about being loved?" responded Mrs Dolly.

"Both," answered the girl, in the same tone.

"Will you try it, my dear? 'Tis the sweetener of all human life."

Gatty looked up with a surprised expression.

"_I_ can't make people love me," she said.

"Nor can you make yourself love others," added Mrs Dorothy. "But you
can ask the Lord for that fairest