have
failed to charm me at that moment.

There is a verse in the Bible which says, 'A little child shall lead
them,' and whenever I hear that verse I think of that evening in
Runswick Bay. For I was still gazing out of my window, looking at I knew
not what, when I heard a well-known little voice just beneath me.

It was Jack. He had come down the hill beneath Duncan's cottage, so that
I had not seen him until he spoke to me below the window.

'Mr. Jack,' he said, 'what are you doing up there? Are you _very_
busy?'

'No, old man,' I said, 'I'm not busy.'

'Then _do_ come out, that's a dear, big Mr. Jack; I do want you so
much.'

Who could resist the pleading little face, and the pretty, fascinating
voice of that child? He would have a hard heart who could do so. I ran
downstairs, and a minute afterwards I was racing with Jack on the wet
sands, for the tide was fast going out, and was helping him to fly a
small kite which his father had bought for him in Whitby. We had a fine
time together on the shore, until at last a towel was hung out of the
top window in the Christies' house, as a sign that it was Jack's
bedtime. Though he was wild with joy and excitement, the obedient little
fellow at once stopped his play, and told me mother wanted him, and he
must go.

'I'm coming for you to-morrow morning, Mr. Jack,' he said.

'To-morrow morning, Jack?'

'Yes, for church,' said the child, putting up his dear little chubby
face to be kissed. 'Don't go without me, will you, Mr. Jack?'

'Well, I'm not sure I'm going to-morrow, little man,' I said
reluctantly, 'so you had better not call for me.'

'Not going to church!' said Jack, in a very shocked voice. 'Why not,
Mr. Jack?'

'I'm going to Scarborough for the day with my friend Tom,' I said.
'I shall go to church in Scarborough, Jack.'

I shall never forget the expression of that child's face as long as I
live; it was a mixture of surprise, sorrow and dismay. 'Mr. Jack, do you
know it's God's day to-morrow?' was all that he said, however; and as at
this moment his mother called him from the bedroom window, he ran off
without another word.

'Do you know it's God's day?' I asked myself when the little boy had
gone. 'Yes, I do know,' I answered aloud, 'and He is my Master, and my
Master's day shall be kept for Him and for His service.'

I walked to a lonely place on the shore where the sea had undermined the
cliff, and had made strange holes and caves, which could on