"What have you, Ernestine?" said Miriam.
"I took mine from Ecclesiastes," was the reply. "'When thou vowest a vow unto the Lord, defer not to pay it.'"
"I like that, too," said Gretta; "but I think Miss Benton's pretty card is helping me more than anything else."
"I think that was lovely, too," said Fannie. "I liked the story ever so much, but it will be nice for us to do as she suggested, and take a motto this week. How would it do to take the one Winnie brought? It seems the easiest for us to understand."
So they all learned it, and, at Miriam's suggestion, added the verse that Gretta had recited.
Mrs. Alroy came back into the sitting-room just as the girls had finished reading their mottoes, and, though her eyes looked heavy, as if she were suffering, she joined the little band, and told them that she thought they were adopting a very good plan to help them over the rough places of life, and perhaps also enable them to make fewer mistakes than they might otherwise do.
While she was talking to them, footsteps were heard coming up the stairs.
"That's papa, I think," said Fannie, and she went with Ernestine to the door.
Ernestine had seen Mr. Allen often, for he was one of the trustees of their school, but of course Mrs. Alroy had never met him, so the girls led him through the narrow hall into the room beyond.
Mrs. Alroy met him at the door and extended her hand, as Fannie said, "My papa, Mrs. Alroy."