t for the head of
Jesus, and poured it upon His feet also; whom the Lord, when she was
chidden, commended; saying, "Ye have the poor with you always, and
whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but Me ye have not always. She
hath done what she could."

Had Matilda? And these poor whom we have always with us, she
recollected that in another place the Lord in a sort identifies Himself
with them, saying that what is done to His poor is done to Himself.
Mrs. Eldridge was not indeed one of the Lord's children, but that did
not help the matter. "For perhaps she will be," Matilda said to
herself. And what if the Lord had sent Matilda there now to be His
messenger? The success of the message might depend on the behaviour of
the messenger. But above all it pressed upon Matilda's heart that she
had not done what she _could;_ and that in declining to make a fire in
Mrs. Eldridge's rusty little stove and in shrinking from waiting upon
her, she had lost a chance of waiting upon, perhaps, the Lord himself.

"And it was such a good chance," thought Matilda; "such a good
afternoon; and there is no telling when I may get another. It was such
a good opportunity. And I lost it."

The pain of a lost opportunity was something she had not counted upon.
It pressed hard, and was not easy to get rid of. The disagreeableness
of the place and the service faded into nothing before this pain.
Matilda went to bed with a sore heart, resolving to watch for the very
first chance to do what she had neglected to do this afternoon.

But Lilac Lane looked very disagreeable to her thoughts the next day,
and the sharp effect of the Bible words had faded somewhat.

"Maria," she said as they were washing up the dishes after
breakfast,--"I wish you would help me in something."

"What?"

"Do you call yourself a member of the Band yet?"

"Of course I do. What do you ask for?"

"I did not know," said Matilda, sighing. "You don't _do_ the things
promised in the covenant. I didn't know but you had given it all up."

"What don't I do?" inquired Maria, fiercely.

"Don't be angry, please, Maria. I do not mean to make you angry."

"What don't I do, Matilda?"

"You know, the covenant says, 'we stand ready to do His will.' He has
commanded that we should be baptized and join the Church, and that we
should follow Him--you know how, Maria. And you don't seem to like to
do it."

"Is that all?"

"That is all about that."

"Then, if you will mind your affa