every side. Nurse
invariably used it for punishing small offences, and being a woman of
stern principles, she generally set the little culprit a text to learn
whilst there. A Bible was on the table, and Betty was led up to it.

'You will stay here till tea-time, and will not come out until you have
learnt a text, and said you are sorry for knocking down your little
brother in a fit of wicked temper. This is the fourth time I have had
to bring you here this week, and it is now only Tuesday. I have more
trouble with you than all the others put together, and you ought to be
ashamed of yourself.'

Betty was sobbing bitterly, and when nurse left the room and turned the
key behind her, the child flung herself down on the floor.

'It's a shame! It's all Douglas and Molly: they make promises and
don't keep them; and it was ever so much nicer a story than Molly's. I
know they'd have liked it if they'd heard it; they never think I can do
anything!'

To explain the cause of Betty's grievance, I must tell you that it was
a custom of the little Stuarts to await the muffin man's approach on
his rounds, and as his bell would sound, they would take it in turns
each day to relate to the others an account of the different houses he
had gone to, and who had been the fortunate individuals to receive the
muffins that had already disappeared from his tray. It was an idle
hour in the nursery from four to five, and if the gathering dusk kept
the active eyes still, the fertile brains were brought into
requisition. Telling stories was a constant delight, and the wonderful
adventures that befell the muffins on their daily rounds kept the
little gathering quiet and happy till tea appeared.

Betty's stories were not inferior to her elders, and it was her
childish sense of justice and consideration that was outraged. But
tears will come to an end, and soon the little maiden was perched up at
the table to learn the task before her. She turned over the pages till
she reached Revelation, that mysterious and mystical book that so
fascinates and contents a child's soul, though the wisest on earth read
it with perplexity and awe. And after a moment or two Betty had found
a text to learn, and when nurse appeared later on she repeated
unfalteringly with shining eyes and with a note of triumph in her tone
'And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their rob