"Ay, and folks can struggle and fight for less things than what divided
them, and lose all just the same. So the Lord said, 'He that loveth his
life, shall lose it;' but He said too, 'He that loseth his life for My
sake, shall find it.'"

"You are talking riddles again, Mrs. Jersey," said Dolly, laughing. "I
thought I was beginning to understand you; but I do not understand
that."

"No, dear; and surely it is a hard saying to many. But I'll give you a
key. Just you give your life to the Lord Jesus, and He will show you
what the losing it means, and the gaining it, too."

"Thank you. I will," said Dolly.

They went on again after that, through more rooms of the house; but the
afternoon did not serve for the whole. Dolly must return to her mother.
Mrs. Jersey sent her home again in the dog-cart. The evening was very
bright and fair; the hedgerows sweet with flowers; the light glittered
on the foliage of trees and copsewood and shrubbery; the sky was clear
and calm. Dolly tasted and rejoiced in it all; and yet in the very
midst of her pleasure an echo from Mrs. Jersey's words seemed to run
through everything. It did not depress; on the contrary, it excited
Dolly. With all the beauty and enjoyment of this very beautiful and
very enjoyable world, there was something still better to be sought and
found; somewhat still more beautiful, far more enjoyable; and the
correlative fact that the search and attainment were, or might be,
attended with some difficulty and requiring some effort or resolution,
was simply an additional stimulus. Dolly breathed the air with intense
taste of it. Yes, she thought, I will seek the knowledge Mrs. Jersey
spoke of. That must be better than anything else.

CHAPTER XIII.

PREACHING AND PRACTICE.

"How long you have stayed, Dolly!" was Mrs. Copley's greeting. "I don't
see what is to become of me in this lonely place, if you are always
trotting about. I shall die!"

Dolly took this cold-water bath upon her pleasure with her usual
sweetness.

"Dear mother, I did not know I was so long away. I will not go again,
if it is bad for you."

"Of course it is bad for me. It is very bad for me. It is bad for
anybody. I just think and think, till I am ready to fly.--What have you
been doing?"

"Looking at Brierley House. So beautiful as it is, mother!"

This made a diversion. Mrs. Copley asked and received a detailed
account of all Dolly had seen.

"It don't sound as if _I_ should like