“To our room,” said Meg, with a saucy, mischievous look.
Hatty turned towards her mother with a sudden glance of inquiry.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Lee, “you are to have Meg for a room-mate.” Hatty’s face flushed, and Mrs. Lee hastened to add, “I thought you would like to help me, and you can do so best by taking Meg with you, and having a little charge over her.”
Hatty looked very soberly, as she answered, “I should like to help you, Mother.”
Mrs. Lee opened the two lower drawers of the bureau, and said, “you see I have put some of Meg’s clothes here; when you need any more you can come to me for them.”
“But, Mother, where are all my presents, and my pretty things? That is too bad! I have always kept them so nicely in those drawers!” said Hatty, hastily.
Mrs. Lee did not speak for a moment; she opened a door leading into a large lighted closet, and then said, “Here, my darling, you will have a place for all you want to keep particularly nice; see, I have put your presents in this drawer, and your books are there above, on the shelf. I have put a little table here for your Bible, and you must not forget to ‘enter into your closet,’ to pray to Him who seeth in secret.”
“O, Mother, you are so very kind and I am so very hasty,” exclaimed Hatty; “I will not forget to do as you say, for indeed I need it. You will have to be very patient with me, Mother, for I am afraid I shall have hard work to keep my resolutions.”
“Trust in God for help to struggle against your faults, and in the end you will conquer,” said the mother, with an affectionate kiss, and then she left her little daughter alone.
Hatty had led an easy, quiet life with her grandmother for the last three months, and had had but little temptation to give way to her hasty temper. Now she began to realize that it would be quite another thing, where at almost every moment she was called on to give up her own will and pleasure for that of others; but she was not disheartened. God has promised to give his strength to those who really wish to serve Him, and on this promise little Hatty relied. In her closet she knelt and asked the blessing of Heaven on her poor efforts, and she rose cheerful and happy.