ttle girl; but Lolly sat still, very glad that the good teacher was
coming to speak to her, yet trembling with a sort of nervous fear;
because she was a shy little girl, and so seldom saw strangers.

She wondered that Alice dared go so fearlessly up and walk along, with
her hand in Miss Mason's hand, and her face upturned towards the lady's,
while she talked as freely as if it had been herself or Maddie listening.
But when Miss Mason stood by the step and stooped down to kiss her sun-
burned cheek, and said sweetly, "So this is your little friend Lolly, is
it, Alice?" she did not wonder any longer; for her heart leaped to meet
the gentle lady, and she could not take her eyes from such a kind and
loving face.

"Where's Maddie?" asked Miss Mason, with a smile.

She could see her peeping through the crack of the door; and,
understanding the case, she said carelessly,--

"I suppose she will join us by-and-by. We will sit here and read in
Alice's book until she comes, and then I want to talk to you. Alice told
me you lived here, Lolly, and I want you to go to the Sunday-school. We
are very happy there, are we not, Alice?"

Alice answered with a beaming face, and she and Lolly sat, one on each
side of the teacher, and listened as she read to them from God's holy
Word.

She read first about the creation of this beautiful world, and the garden
where Adam and Eve were placed; and, when she had made Lolly and Maddie
understand all about how sin came--for Maddie, attracted by the sweet
voice and pleasant manner, had crept softly from her hiding-place and
curled herself upon the step behind the lady--Miss Mason turned to the
New Testament and read to them a few verses about Jesus, who took upon
himself our nature and suffered for our sins.

The children were much impressed by the story of the Saviour's sufferings
and death; and when the teacher told them that every naughty word and
deed of theirs was like a nail in the Saviour's feet or hands, they felt
that they would never again do a wicked thing.

Then she told them how impossible it would be for them to keep from sin
without God's continual help; and she taught them how to look up to him
and ask for his aid and blessing. And when she had made sure that they
could say a short prayer, and had obtained a promise from them that they
would go every Sunday to the Sunday-school, she kissed them all three
very affectionately, and went on to search for others of her heavenly