"Oh, Sam! God made you, and keeps you alive every day, and Miss Falkner says it isn't only what God does for us, but Jesus died for us, so that ought to make us belong to Him doubly sure!"
"Well," said Sam after long thought, "I'll come to 'Bethel' to-morrow."
So the next day saw him go through the little ceremony with great feeling and earnestness of purpose, though the effort cost him a good deal.
"I've done it fayther," he said when he went home, "I've tooken the vow for good and all. I thought it were a kind o' game when Miss Jill first brought it up, but I've been readin' the Bible, an' it do seem very plain, an'—an'—well—we do be ungrateful creatures to the good God!"
The scarlet bag grew heavy with coppers as time went on. Norah and Rose Beecher came over to tea one day, and were persuaded to join "Our Tenth Society!"
Jill got to calling it grandly the "O.T.S." and soon had the satisfaction of enrolling Annie the school-room maid as one of its members.
Then came talk of summer holidays. Mona came into the school-room one evening to consult with Miss Falkner about it.
"I suppose you must go home?" she asked. "You would not be able to take the children to the seaside?"
"I am afraid not," said Miss Falkner. "I have a mother who lives quite alone, and who looks for me to come to her whenever I can."