so exceptionally bright that he thought there was no work to do in that
direction.

"But just now," she added, earnestly, "I want to know, since you are
shut away from home effort, for which of these boys you are praying
especially, and which of them do you carry about on your heart, with
the hope of a chance meeting, an unexpected, opportunity to speak a
word, or do a kindness, or look a kindness that shall give you possible
future influence? Don't you have to work in those ways? Two people
never equally interest me at the same moment. I find I must be intensely
individual, not to the exclusion of others, but in praying. For instance,
yesterday I prayed, and this morning I prayed, for my entire class, but
there was one all the time who was uppermost. I find myself questioning,
What can I do for them all, but especially for him? Do you know, I fancy
that most Christians feel the same; individual effort is so necessary
that I have thought perhaps the Holy Spirit turns our thoughts most
directly toward one person at a time, so that we may concentrate our
efforts. Do you think this is so?"

Young Ried did not answer promptly; he had no answer ready that suited
him. His strongest feeling just then was one of self-reproach, mingled
with humiliation. How had he looked down on this fair and beautiful
little woman,--her very beauty being, he had fancied, an element against
her when it came to actual effort. How had he allowed himself to sneer
over her attempts at teaching that class of boys! How actually irritable
he had been over it! How almost angrily he had questioned why it was
that a teacher was not found for them fitted to their needs; when he had
prayed about it so much; determined not to believe that the prayer had
been answered, and the teacher found; yet here she was, the one whose
efforts he had despised, talking already about individual prayer for