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 I went up into the room and helped him ondress and hearn him tell his prayers, and tucked him up and left him with a warm good-night kiss and went below to git Delight ready for bed. And, oh, how sweet she did look as she knelt in her little white nightgown, her dimpled hands clasped on my knee, and her great, big, innocent eyes lookin' up into my face and through it, searchin' for the Eternal Good she was addressin'! I wuz waitin' to hear her commence, my Josiah lookin' on admirin'ly from the other side of the hearth. When all of a sudden she broke out, all of a sudden like, and, sez she:

"Oh, before I forgit it, Lord, I want to tell you."

Josiah made a horrified exclamation as if he wuz shocked beyond all account, and would have stopped her. But I gin him a warnin' look and let her go on. "Before I say my prayers, dear Lord, I want to tell you that I wuz a selfish little girl yesterday morning, and I want you to help me; I want you to help me special to be a generous little girl, and I will help you, too, or mebby I won't."

Here Josiah fairly throwed up his hands and sez, "Samantha Allen, this is goin' too fur; I won't set still and see irreverence goin' on in my house. She must not be allowed to say such things. I speak as a deacon," sez he, lookin' some big. And it wuz to think on a dretful speech to make, tellin' the Lord that mebby she would help Him and mebby she wouldn't. It sounded strange and bad, and if I had hushed her up and rebuked her chillin'ly we should always thought she wuz irreverent and irreligious; but I felt that there wuz sunthin' to the bottom of it more than she could with her small stock of language readily make known. And I gin my pardner