Anyhow, I agreed with Lottie not to run any risks, and I do not think we
did. At least, all my memories of that happy year at Beecham are mingled
with the bright, merry, gentle friend who made easy all the lessons that
could be easy, and gave me courage for those that _had_ to be hard; and
against whose shoulder I loved to nestle, and listen to Bible-stories
with those little hints in them which always set me thinking of my own
faults and duties, and made me long to do right, and be the good little
Christian girl she wished me to be.

Little reader, dear, are you making lines on anybody's forehead?




VII.

_HURRAH FOR THE HOLIDAYS!_


And yet, however pleasant lessons might be, there is no doubt that
holidays were pleasant things, too. Saturday afternoons were always
welcome, and all the weeks through we were planning what we would do
when they came. Of course these plans were sometimes upset by a rainy
day; but, even then, what with battledore and shuttlecock, painting and
spinning tops, we contrived to make out the time very happily.

And before us all the while was the bright, pleasant prospect of the
long summer holidays.

Every now and then during these happy months the thought of home came