; a desire to reason with the two prisoners on the sin
and folly of their evil courses, and persuade them to repentance and
reformation.

He did not approach them in a self-righteous spirit, for the thought in
his heart was, "It is only the grace of God that maketh us to differ;
and with the same heredity, and like surroundings and influences I might
have been even a greater criminal than they;" but he found them sullen
and defiant and by no means grateful for his kindly interest in their
welfare.

Still he continued his efforts, visiting them frequently while they lay
in the county jail awaiting trial.

Lulu looked forward to the trial with some apprehension, dreading to be
placed on the witness-stand before the judges, jurymen, lawyers, and the
crowd of spectators likely to be present on the occasion.

"It'll be a great, great deal worse than that time in the magistrate's
office," she said to herself again and again. But by her father's advice
she tried to put away the thought of it and give her mind to other
things.

She was interested in her studies, amusements, in the books and
periodicals furnished for the profit and entertainment of herself and
brother and sister, and in the young people's societies just started in
the connection.

These prospered and grew by the addition of new members from among the
young folks who, though of the neighborhood, were yet outside of the
connection.

Under Grandma Elsie's wise and kindly instruction several of the older
members soon became quite expert in preparing work for themselves and
the others; also in gathering up information on the subject of missions,
and in regard to the needy of their own vicinity.

Thus their meetings were made interesting, were well attended and looked
forward to with pleasure, while quite an amount of good was
accomplished through their means.

The Woodburn children were never willing to miss a meeting, and took
pride and pleasure in doing their full share of the sewing undertaken by
the Dorcas society.

That was a more congenial task to Grace than to Lulu, but the
latter--partly from pride, partly from a real desire to be
useful--insisted each time on carrying home at least as much work as
Gracie did.

And for some weeks she was very faithful with her self-imposed task; but
after that her interest in that particular work began to flag and she
delayed doing it, giving her time and thoughts to other matters, till at
last Gracie reminded