did not mind expressing
his opinion of them. I never saw him so put out. He felt much for poor
Webb, and I heard him declare that he was very doubtful about Mr
Falconer's recovery. If he died, what would become of poor Miss Kitty?

CHAPTER NINE.

A MINISTERING ANGEL.

Mr Falconer did not die. Kitty asked him to live for her sake, and I
dare say he was glad to do so. Dick and the doctor were out of hearing
at the time, so that I don't know whether I ought to repeat it.

She often, as she sat by his side, spoke very seriously to him, and used
to read the Bible. One day she asked whether he truly believed it to be
God's word, and to contain His commands to man. He said he did with all
his heart, and that he had always done so.

"Then," she asked, "how is it that you have not always lived according
to its rules?"

"First, because I did not read the book," he answered; "and, secondly,
because I liked to follow my own will."

"And preferred darkness to light, because your deeds were evil? That is
what the Bible says, Edward, and you believe that it is God's word,"
said Kitty, in a firm voice. "But can you now truly say, `I will arise
and go to my Father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son?'"

She gazed with her bright blue eyes full upon him as she spoke, so
innocent and free from guile.

"Indeed, I truly can," he said.

"Hear these words," she continued, turning rapidly over the leaves of
the Bible she held before her. "`God so loved the world that he gave
his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.'"

"The faith, the belief, must be living, active, not a dead faith, and
then how glorious the assurance, if we remember what everlasting life
means--a certainty of eternal happiness, which no man can take away, and
which makes the pains, and sufferings, and anxieties of this life as
nothing. I always think of those promises, Edward, whenever I am in
trouble, and you know I very often am, and I remember that God says, `I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' That, and that alone, has
enabled me to endure the dreadful life I have had to lead on board this
ship, until I knew that you loved me. But the being possessed of that
knowledge, though it affords me unspeakable happiness, does not, I
confess, make me more free from anxiety than I was before. Then I k