an ask some that a very wise man could not
answer."

"Yes, she has an inquiring mind, and I would not discourage her desire
to learn by asking questions," Grandma Elsie said, adding with a smile,
"I can remember that her mother used to ask me some very puzzling ones
twenty years ago."

"And I never received a rebuff, but was always answered to the best of
your ability, dear mamma. I think of that now when tempted to impatience
with my little girl's sometimes wearisome questioning, and resolve to
try to be as good a mother to her as you were to me; and still are," she
added with a loving smile. "And now that she has gone back to her play
and baby Ned is sleeping, I want a quiet chat with you."

"Then let us go to your boudoir and have it," her mother answered,
rising and moving toward the door.

"Mamma, I have not heretofore been timid about burglars," Violet said,
when they were seated in the boudoir, each busied with a bit of
needlework, "but I fear that I shall be in future; for only think,
mamma, how near they were to my husband and myself while we lay sleeping
soundly in our own room! How easily they might have murdered us both
before we were even aware of their presence in the house."

"Could they? had you then no wakeful guardian at hand?"

"O mamma, yes! 'Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world,' and 'He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep';
and yet--haven't even Christians sometimes been murdered by burglars?"

"I can not assert that they have not," replied her mother. "'According
to your faith be it unto you,' and even true Christians are sometimes
lacking in faith--putting their trust in their own defences, or some
earthly helper, instead of the Keeper of Israel; or they are fearful and
doubtful, refusing to take God at his word and rest in his protecting
care.

"I do not see that we have anything to do with the question you
propounded just now; we have only to take God's promises, believe them
fully and be without carefulness in regard to that, as well as other
things. I am perfectly sure he will suffer no real evil to befall any
who thus trust in him.

"Death by violence may sometimes be a shorter, easier passage home than
death from disease; and come in whatever shape it may, death can be no
calamity to the Christian."

"Solomon tells us that the day of death is better than the day of one's
birth. 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.'

"My dear Vi, I th