However, she commended and encouraged Nelly, and told her always to
resort to the same sure Helper in time of temptation, and to do it in
the first place. "And Jesus is always ready to hear and help you," she
added.

"An' it was Him told you to give me the frock too, wasn't it? And I'm
rightly thankful to Him, and you too, Miss Lucy."

And Nelly carried home her new acquisition, with very different
feelings from those with which she had taken the frock she had
coveted.

"How glad I am I thought of getting it ready for her!" thought Lucy as
she watched her depart, her own heart full of the pleasure of doing a
much-needed kindness,--the only drawback being her regret that Nelly
had not a new hat likewise.

The much-watched-for day on which the picnic was to be held turned out
as fine as the most eager young hearts could desire, notwithstanding
one or two slight showers that fell in the early morning. But these
only cleared the air and laid the dust, and made the foliage so fresh
and glistening that its early summer beauty seemed for a time
revived.

The fine old oak grove where the feast was to be held, was, even
before the appointed hour, astir with bright little groups of happy
children. The teachers and some of the elder girls were already busy
at a roughly constructed table, unpacking and arranging cups and
saucers, filling the latter with the ripe-red berries which had been
brought in in great abundance, and cutting up the piles of buns and
cakes. Bessie Ford was superintending the distribution of the cream
which had come in large jars from the farmhouses, and of which Mill
Bank Farm had contributed the richest and finest. Lucy of course was
among the working party, her position as Mr. Raymond's daughter giving
her a degree of importance far from disagreeable to her. Stella,
seated with her friend Marian Wood in the centre of a mass of flowers,
was daintily arranging them in tiny bouquets to be given to the
children.

At last Bessie, who with Nelly's new hat beside her had been watching
the various arrivals, descried the little solitary figure, with its
dark, hanging locks, for which she had been looking. When she
approached her, she was quite surprised at the change in her
appearance produced by the fresh, pretty frock; and when her old hat
was removed, and the new one placed upon her dark hair, which had been
smoothly combed and brushed out and put back from her eyes, she really
looked as nice as most of t