ts, dear? Do you ever think?"

"Our Father in heaven. No one else can. _He_ knows how to snip our
hearts, and get the naughty out. Sometimes he sends the earache and the
toothache to Susy, and the--the--lameness to me. O, he has a great many
ways of snipping!"

Prudy was showing the angel-side of her nature now. Suffering was
"making her perfect." She had a firm belief that God knew all about it,
and that somehow or other it was "all right." Her mother took a great
deal of pains to teach her this. She knew that no one can bear
affliction with real cheerfulness who does not trust in God.

But there was now and then a bright day when Prudy felt quite buoyant,
and wanted to play. Susy left everything then, and tried to amuse her.
If this lameness was refining little Prudy, it was also making Susy more
patient. She could not look at her little sister's pale face, and not be
touched with pity.

One afternoon, Flossy Eastman and Ruthie Turner came to see Susy; and,
as it was one of Prudy's best days, Mrs. Parlin said they might play in
Prudy's sitting-room. Ruthie was what Susy called an "old-fashioned
little girl." She lived with a widowed mother, and had no brothers and
sisters, so that she appeared much older than she really was. She liked
to talk with grown people upon wise subjects, as if she were at least
twenty-five years old. Susy knew that this was not good manners, and she
longed to say so to Ruthie.

Aunt Madge was in Prudy's sitting-room when Ruthie entered. Ruthie went
up to her and shook hands at once.

"I suppose it is Susy's aunt Madge," said she. "I am delighted to see
you, for Susy says you love little girls, and know lots of games."

There was such a quiet composure in Ruth's manner, and she seemed to
feel so perfectly at home in addressing a young lady she had never seen
before, that Miss Parlin was quite astonished, as well as a little
inclined to smile.

Then Ruthie went on to talk about the war. Susy listened in mute
despair, for she did not know anything about politics. Aunt Madge looked
at Susy's face, and felt amused, for _Ruthie_ knew nothing about
politics either: she was as ignorant as Susy. She had only heard her
mother and other ladies talking together. Ruthie answered all the
purpose of a parrot hung up in a cage, for she caught and echoed
everything that was said, not having much idea what it meant.

When aunt Madge heard Ruth laboring away at long sentences, with hard
words in them