"Oh! Here you all are!" said Aunt Ruth.
"Yes, just ready for a nice twilight story," said Rose. "They are getting the tea, and there is just time."
Aunt Ruth was always willing, though she seldom suggested a talk unless they did. Often she seized upon a little lesson from what was passing at the moment, which the children were grateful for, and did not forget.
"Well, come along, settle yourselves quickly," she said, "for if Rose is right about the tea, there will not be much time."
They all gathered round her affectionately.
"Well, auntie?" said Oswald, by way of a beginning.
"Well," she responded, "it struck me as if by a flash when I saw Jean fanning the fire into that beautiful flame, how the dull fire was typical of our dull hearts, cold and dead, the spark of love and faith nearly extinguished by adverse circumstances—"
"Yes, auntie," said Tom eagerly, "what then?"
"Then comes a force outside ourselves, and with the breath of living power, He fans the little sparks till they brighten and grow warm, fanned by the love of God, and the breath of the Holy Spirit."
"I don't understand much about the Holy Spirit," said Oswald, in a low tone, "it always seems too high a subject for me."