blooming
flowers.

This was the family sitting-room, generally the abode of Miss Eunice,
for Etta was too much of a butterfly to stay anywhere, and Rhoda, the
middle sister, now about twenty, was an artist, entirely devoted to
painting, spending her days and a great part of her nights in her
studio, and caring nothing for any of the interests connected with our
story. It was luxuriously furnished, more with a view to comfort than to
show, and as the girls sank into the easy sofas or into the deep stuffed
chairs, or else made themselves comfortable upon low seats and divans,
the contrast with their own bare homes and hardworking life was enough
to call forth many a sigh of rest and enjoyment. Work was then produced,
the usual inquiries after parents and sisters, invalids and home-keepers
asked and answered, with a little other familiar conversation, when Miss
Eunice said: "I think, girls, as we have finished the book upon which
we have been so long engaged, we will not commence another to-day, but
devote our thoughts to a subject about which I have been thinking a
great deal, and which your pastor agrees with me in thinking of very
great importance to be brought before you. I mean a public confession of
Christ as your Saviour and Master."

Some of the girls looked grave, some blushed, some were confused. Katie
Robertson glanced up expectantly, for this was an opportunity she had
long been on the lookout for, and longed to hear more about it. One of
the elder girls said:--

"But, Miss Eunice, nobody ought to join the church who is not
converted."

"That is very true, but is it not equally true that all who are
converted ought to join the church, as you express it, or, as I prefer
to say, confess their Saviour? It is only a mean soul which is willing
to accept gifts and favors and never openly acknowledge its gratitude
for them. I wouldn't care for the friendship of any one who was ashamed
to own me before other people; and I wouldn't think much of a soldier
who did not show his colors and put on the uniform of his country."

Katie felt her face flush; for was she not one of these very secret
friends--one of the soldiers who had not as yet put on the uniform? Not
that she had really been ashamed to do so, but the subject had not been
very prominently brought to her notice, and when she had thought of it
at all it had seemed such a strange, awful, public step for so young a
girl to take. She felt so unworthy; it seeme