t of all Mrs. King slipped about her neck a little string of pearls.
"These are my gift to you, Julia," she said. "Wear them when you think you
are dressed as you and I have planned to-night and be as beautiful as the
pearls. Remember, dear, we may put beautiful things on the outside but
they can never make us beautiful. It comes from the inside because of what
we are. It stands the test of study. It is always real. A girl who does
not live up to the best she knows can well be called a coward. Good night,
dear, I am glad there is a girlie who loves me."

Then with a good-night kiss she was gone--gone, as Julia knew, to be more
than ever lonely for her own little girl.

For a long time Julia stood looking at the dress, and the slippers, and
the stockings. Mrs. King had plenty of money, yet these were to have been
her daughter's graduation clothes. And she had not finished school because
she could not have clothes like the rest of the girls who were to have
expensive ones. Mrs. King was honored all through the city, yet she was
dressed in a simple serge dress at the Country Club. It was all very
strange! Some one had things very much mixed up concerning what a girl
should wear. How long it seemed since she had left the office in the
afternoon!

The room was so dainty that it took Julia a long time to get ready for
bed. How she would love to have a room like this! Maybe it would be easy
to be good. She looked at the dress again, as she laid it carefully over
the chair. It was all hers. The girls would laugh at her but she loved it.
Then she lifted the little string of pearls--not cheap, big ones such as
she had worn on Sunday, but dainty, beautiful ones, and they whispered
again to her,

"Be as beautiful as the beads, girlie. True beauty is never put on from
the outside. It comes from inside because of what you are."

Long she stood in the moonlight near the window looking at them. Then she
dropped on her knees and said,

"Dear God, she has shown me the best. Help me not to be a coward as I go
out and try to do it. Help me to be as beautiful as the pearls. I thank
Thee for to-day. I want to show others what real beauty is and how to get
it. Please help me."

And the Father heard the prayer of the girl kneeling there in her white
night-gown, for it came from a sincere heart--and He answered.

THE BEST DAY

By Mrs. Annie G. Freeman

One sunny summer afternoon Margaret sat reading beneath the shade of an
o