ng with her doll.

"Won't you look at my doll, Cousin Lucy?" she said. "I got her on my
birthday. Her name is Lucy, after _you_."

"After _me_?" said Lucy, surprised. "Did you call her after me before
I came?"

"Yes," replied Amy timidly; "for Stella said you were nice, and I
should love you."

"I hope you will, dear," said Lucy, touched and gratified, and she
kissed her little cousin affectionately, looking pityingly at the
pale, delicate face and fragile form. She had always wished to have a
little sister of her own, and her heart was quite disposed to take the
little girl into a sister's place. She drew her closer, and after
talking a little about the doll, she said:

"Does Amy love the good, kind Saviour, who came to die for her?"

The child looked up with a puzzled expression.

"Jesus, you know," added Lucy, thinking that name might be more
familiar.

"That is Jesus that my hymn is about. Nurse taught me, 'Gentle Jesus,
meek and mild.'"

"Yes. Well, don't you love Him, Amy? He loves you very much."

"Does He love me?" asked Amy. "How do you know?"

"Because He says so."

"But He is up in heaven. Nurse said my little brother is up there with
Him."

It was always "nurse." Amy did not seem to owe much knowledge of that
kind to any one else. Lucy tried to explain as simply as possible
that, although the Saviour is in heaven, He is as really near us as
when He was on earth; and that we have still in the Bible the very
words that He spoke while yet among men.

"Are they in there?" asked Amy, looking at Lucy's Bible.

"Yes, dear. You can't read yet, I suppose?"

"Oh no! The doctor says I mustn't learn for a long while."

"Then I will read to you some of the things that Jesus said. Would you
like that?"

"Oh yes!" said Amy; and Lucy read the account of our Saviour blessing
the little children. She was pleased and surprised at the quiet
attention and deep interest with which Amy listened, and mentally
resolved to try to lead her to know more of that blessed Saviour, of
whom as yet she knew so little. Here was some work provided for her
already, she thought, and the feeling made her happier than she had
been since she left home.

The evening passed away much as the former one had gone, except that
it was varied by the presence of visitors, among whom was a gentleman
who, Stella privately informed her cousin, was an "admirer" of
Sophy's.

"But it's no use, if he knew it, for you know she's engaged