cannot leave you a great number of injunctions," exclaimed Mrs. Headley tearfully, on that last morning when all was ready for departure, and the day for the sailing of the steamer had really come.
"I think you have, mother," said Hugh, trying to hide his feeling under a joke.
"No, not to you, dear; to Agnes I may have."
"Yes, to me" said Hugh. "I am to mind Agnes, and not to mind John; and to mind I am kind to Minnie; and to keep in mind that Alice is younger than I; and to——"
"Shut up," said John; "we don't want to hear your gabble to the last moment!"
"I was going to say," resumed their mother gently, "that there was one thing I did want you to think of."
"Tell us then, mother," said Alice, putting her arm round her fondly, "we'll keep it as the most important of all."
There was a momentary silence, and then Mrs. Headley turned to her husband with a mute appeal. "Tell them," she said brokenly, "what we were saying this morning."
"We want you all to think of one thing. In any difficulty, in every difficulty, in all circumstances, say to yourselves, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' If you wait and hear the answer, it will help you in everything."