"Oh, I am so glad! I wish I could have been there," cried Norah, clapping her hands.
"It was all along of you that Miss Persis ever knew Sophy Puller," said Franks, looking fondly at his young niece; "'twas you that fixed the end of the cable, whoever else may tow her along."
"Was not Sophy charmed with the news? Tell me all about it," cried Norah.
"You shall hear all to-morrow," replied Franks, "when you come home to see your mother. I must not keep you long now, lest your lady's breakfast should suffer. Persis said that poor Sophy's eyes filled with tears when she heard that she might be taken from the workhouse next week, and given a chance in London of earning some honest trade. She didn't say much in the way of thanks, but, I take it, she felt none the less grateful, because tears would come in the place of words. But when the lady was speaking to the matron at the other end of the room, the poor girl got a little quiet talk with your friend. Sophy squeezed her hand very tightly, and whispered, 'Tell my dear Norah that I have been praying, I have been knocking, and I do hope that God has heard me, and that His door of mercy will be opened even to me.'"
"Did she send me that message?" exclaimed Norah, her blue eyes sparkling with joy.
"Ay, ay, word for word, as I took them down from the lips of your friend. She seemed as glad to repeat as you are to hear them, Norah; I take it that Persis Meade is one as shares the joy of the angels when a sinner's poor broken heart first feels the comfort of heavenly hope."
"Persis is more like an angel herself than any one else that I know," cried Norah. "I can't think how I did not profit more by all that she told me when I went to her Bible-class on Sundays."
"She sowed in hope," observed Franks, "and God gives the increase at last. No doubt she trusted in the word, 'let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.' * And now, goodbye, and God bless you, Norah;" Ned wrung his niece's hand as he spoke. "I'll be sure to drop in at your mother's and see you to-morrow, and walk back with you in the evening. You've done a kind act, my girl; you and your friend have made a good beginning to the year; may it be full of blessings to you and to her, both as regards heavenly things and earthly."
* Gal. vi. 9.
With a sweet sense of peace and joy, Norah Peele went to church on that first Sunday of the New-year. She was a very different girl from what she had been when the last year had opened upon her. Then, her first thought had been her own pleasure; Norah had been almost as apt as poor Sophy herself to build up fanciful hopes that must crumble at last into dust; but since she had come under the influence of her uncle, new feelings, new wishes, new hopes had arisen in Norah's soul. She had begun to realise that she was a redeemed, an immortal being, bound to glorify God in her body and her soul; and looking forward to the blessed time when she should inherit a crown of life, Norah was learning, in weal or woe, to "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." *