"I was wondering why things are never so nice as we expect them to be."
"Shall I tell you why that is the case, dear?"
Lena only nodded in reply, and Mrs. Graham, looking down fondly on the girl's upturned face, said, "Because we want things to be exactly as we wish, instead of taking thankfully and contentedly what God sends. I fear we are all too apt to think we know best what is good for us."
"Oh no, Mama," cried Lena in a shocked tone.
"We don't think or allow, even to ourselves, that we do so, dear; but how is it that we so often say—'If it had only been different, it would have been so much nicer and better?' I fancy that some such thoughts were in my little girl's mind to-night."
"I did not know that it was so wrong. Auntie told me it would not be good for me to have my own way too much; and I remember she once said, 'She was so glad she had not the ordering of her own life.' Are you glad too?"
"Yes, darling, very, very glad. Ah, Lena dear, it is such peace and happiness to know that all is done for us by that loving Father, who gives us more than we can ask or desire."
When Lena said her prayers that night, she paused, in the Lord's Prayer, at the words, "Thy will be done." How often she had repeated them slowly and reverently as she had been taught to do, but to-night they seemed to assume a new and deeper meaning; and when Mama had given her, her good-night kiss, she repeated them over and over to herself ere she fell asleep. No wonder that the next morning she rose bright and happy; and when Lucy's voice was heard at the door saying, "I want to speak to you, Lena," she opened the door and greeted her little sister with a loving kiss.
"I am very sorry I was a naughty girl last night," she said gravely, as if repeating a lesson.
"Oh, never mind, dear."