perplexed face.

"I devoutly hope not. I shall do all in my power to prevent it."

"What do pious people do?" questioned Milly.

"Do! They give tracts away and sing hymns, and pull long faces over very
well-bound Bibles."

"I like singing hymns," asserted Milly, very emphatically; "everybody
sings hymns to God, don't they? I listen to the birds, sometimes, and
wish I could sing like them; and the trees sing, and the bees and flies.
Everything seems to sing out of doors in the summer time, but they've
nearly all dropped asleep now till next year. What hymns do you sing,
Major Lovell?"

"Bless the child! what do you take me for?" and the major laughed
heartily as he spoke; then, with a twinkle in his eye, he went on
gravely,--

"I shall begin to think that you are pious if you don't take care. What
else do you do besides sing hymns?"

"I have a Bible," said Milly, solemnly, "and I just love it."

"And what makes you love such a dry book as the Bible? You can't
understand a word of it."

"Oh, I can, Major Lovell, it's beautiful. I love nurse to read and read
it to me. It tells about Jesus, you know, and I love Jesus, and He loves