Page:The old stone house.djvu/37

Rh looks, while, busily sewing on her machine, sat the sister-mother, pale and careworn, but happy in the success of her plan. It seemed to me a great load for one pair of. shoulders, and I said so. The children had gone into another room, and as I spoke, rashly perhaps, the overworked girl burst into tears. " Oh, sir," she said, " it is the wish of my life to give them a good schooling, and I don't mind the work. But sometimes it.is so hard ! If it was not for the prayers, I could not get through another day."

"Your prayers are a comfort to you" I asked.

"They are more than that, sir," she replied earnestly; "they are life itself. Every morning I kneel down and just put the whole day into the Lord's hands, asking Him to give us bread, and help us all, — me in my work and the children in their lessons. And while I'm asking, some way a kind of peace comes over me, and although I may know there is not a crumb in the closet, or a cent in my purse, I always get up with a light heart. The Bible is true, indeed, sir; I can't read