The child looked up hastily. "O Miss Allison!" she said, "is it
you? I thought I was quite alone."

"And so you were, my dear, until this moment" replied the lady,
drawing up a chair, and sitting down close beside her. "I was on
the veranda, and hearing sobs, came in to see if I could be of any
assistance. You look very much distressed; will you not tell me
the cause of your sorrow?"

Elsie answered only by a fresh burst of tears.

"They have all gone to the fair and left you at home alone;
perhaps to learn a lesson you have failed in reciting?" said the
lady, inquiringly.

"Yes, ma'am," said the child; "but that is not the worst;" and her
tears fell faster, as she laid the little Bible on the desk, and
pointed with her finger to the words she had been reading. "Oh!"
she sobbed, "I--I did not do it; I did not bear it patiently. I
was treated unjustly, and punished when I was not to blame, and I
grew angry. Oh! I'm afraid I shall never be like Jesus! never,
never."

The child's distress seemed very great, and Miss Allison was
extremely surprised. She was a visitor who had been in the house
only a few days, and, herself a devoted Christian, had been
greatly pained by the utter disregard of the family in which she
was sojourning for the teachings of God's word. Rose Allison was
from the North, and Mr. Dinsmore, the proprietor of Roselands, was