"It is dreadful about his clothes," put in Violet.
"I do not mind that so much," said Rose. "Mother always said Magnus was a fidget to fit. But what can he mean by B. J.? Oh, girls, do you think it could possibly be some dreadful expression he has learned, and didn't like to write out to us?" And Rose put her head down, in great distress.
"It could not be!" said Violet, with a scared look. "Why, you are talking about Magnus! Rose, I believe you are crazy."
"I think I must be," said Rose, lifting her head and brushing off the tears. "Of course, it is all my nonsense. Cherry, where are you going?"
"Home," said the girl, pulling on her deep sun-bonnet. "I have something to do. I'll be down again soon."
No one noticed how white the young face had grown while the other girls wept; no one guessed the cause of this sudden home-going; but as she went, Cherry clenched her hands for very anguish of heart. Magnus change like that? Magnus learn words so bad that he would not write them home? No indeed!—it could not be; she knew it could not. All the same, that vision of possibility had come into her heart, and come to stay; and nothing stilled the aching until she had carried her burden to the feet of Him, "Who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory."
Cherry did not cry: she was not given to tears: but from that day on, two Bible verses answered to each other in her heart like a sweet chime:
"Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, that have not defiled their garments," and "He is able to save to the uttermost."