mother, don't you love that tenth verse?--and the thirteenth and
fourteenth?"

Mrs. Mathieson looked at it, silently; then she said, "I don't rightly
understand it, Nettie. I suppose I ought to do so,--but I don't."

"Why, mother! I understand it. It means, that if Jesus makes you happy,
you'll never be unhappy again. 'Whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him, _shall never thirst_,'--don't you see, mother? 'Shall
never thirst,'--he will have enough, and be satisfied."

"How do you know it, Nettie?" her mother asked, in a puzzled kind of
way.

"I know it, mother, because Jesus has given that living water to me."

"He never gave it to me," said Mrs. Mathieson, in the same tone.

"But he _will_, mother. Look up there--oh, how I love that tenth
verse!--'If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to
thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water.' See, mother,--he will give, if we ask."

"And do you feel so, Nettie?--that you have enough, and are satisfied
with your life every day?"

"Yes, mother," Nettie said, quietly; "I am very happy. I am happy all
the time; because I think that Jesus is with me everywhere; when I'm
upstairs, and when I'm busy here, and when I'm at school, and when I go
to the spring; and all times. And that makes me very happy."

"And don't you wish for anything you haven't got?" said her mother.

"Yes, one thing," said Nettie. "I just wish that you and father and
Barry may be so happy too; and I believe that's coming; for I've prayed
the Lord, and I believe he will give it to me. I want it for other
people too. I often think, when I am looking at somebody, of those
words--'If thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldest have asked of
him, and he would have given thee living water.'"

With that, Mrs. Mathieson cast down her book and burst into such a
passion of weeping that Nettie was frightened. It was like the breaking
up of an icy winter. She flung her apron over her head and sobbed aloud;
till hearing the steps of the men upon the staircase she rushed off to
Barry's room, and presently got quiet, for she came out to supper as if
nothing had happened.

From that time there was a gentler mood upon her mother, Nettie saw;
though she looked weary and careworn as ever, there was not now often
the hard, dogged look which had been wont to be there for months past.
Nettie had no difficulty to get her to read the Tes