She did not choose long chapters, but with a few words at the end tried to make them interesting to her little pupils.
One morning the subject was Jacob's flight from home. Jill was keenly interested in it.
"What did Jacob mean by giving a tenth to God?" she asked after reading in her turn the last verse of the chapter.
Miss Falkner explained it.
"You see," she said, after telling them of the Jewish custom, "all the money that we have really comes from God. And those of us who are trying to be His servants feel we are given it to use for Him. But even so it is nice to put apart a tenth to use especially for His work down here. A tenth means a penny out of every ten, or a shilling out of every ten, or a pound out of every ten, just as we have it given to us."
Jill's mouth and eyes were open wide.
"And if you have only nine pennies?" she asked.
Miss Falkner smiled.
"Wait till you have ten," she said.
"And what must you do with the tenth?" asked Jack; "put it into the plate at the church?"