questions about the journey they had begun, and the country to which
they were going. When Louisa and Emma saw that their mamma was very
sad, and not so ready as usual to join in their talk, they did not
tease her, as some thoughtless children would have done, but each
chose for herself a pleasant and quiet employment. Louisa began to
arrange the furniture in her baby-house, and Emma brought a piece of
brown silk from her drawer of treasures, and set about making a cover
for her new Bible.

"Why, Emma, what are you about?" cried Louisa, after watching her
sister for a moment; "surely you are not going to use that beautiful
book?"

"Yes, I am," said Emma, quietly; "I mean to read a little in it every
day. Ah! I see that you think it will soon be torn and soiled; but I
assure you I intend to be very careful; and look, what a nice cover
this will make!"

"I am afraid," said Louisa, laughing, "you will never be careful as
long as you live. To think of so soon beginning to use that handsome
book! I have made up my mind to read a chapter every day, but not out
of my new Bible. I think the old one, that lies in the school-room,
will do just as well."

"So it would," returned Emma; "and I thought of that myself last
night, when aunt Harding told us how much she wished us to be good,
and to love the Scriptures: but then the school-room Bible is not
always in its place, and that might sometimes hinder me from reading
at all. Now I shall keep this book in my little drawer in our room,
where I can find it in a minute."