the Bible, offered prayer, or went to church; so that the poor child
had grown up thus far as ignorant of religious truth as a heathen.

We may well consider then the providence of God which brought her
under the care of Mammy Grace, the negro nurse, as another link
in that golden chain of love which was to draw her up out of the shame
and misery of her abject condition to the knowledge and service
of her Heavenly Father.


CHAPTER VI.

BEGINNINGS OF KNOWLEDGE.

THE first day of the new service was over. The two babies had
been carried to the house and put to bed as usual at sunset,
and Mammy Grace had mixed the corn-pone for supper, and laid it
to bake beneath the hot ashes.

Tidy stretched herself at full length near the open door
of the cabin, and resting her head upon her hand looked out.
All was still save the hum of voices from the house, and now
and then the plaintive song of the whippoorwill in the meadow.
The new moon was just hiding its silvery crescent behind
Tulip Mountain, and the shadows were growing every moment
darker among the flower-laden trees that covered its sides.
It was just the hour for thinking; and as the weary child lay there,
watching the stars that, one by one, stepped with such strange,
noiseless grace out upon the clear, blue sky, soothed by the calm
influence that breathed through the beautiful twilight, she soon