This kind correction had been blessed by Him who directed it in His word; and as Jenny grew up she was the most dutiful, the most industrious, and the most pious of the young people in the village.
She never was seen flaunting about with those idle giddy girls who are so fond of laughing and giggling at every thing they see, and forget that a modest quiet spirit is, in the sight of God, an ornament of great price. 1 Pet. iii. 4.
Jenny lived quietly at home, and tried to be as serviceable as possible to her mother; and very useful she was, as all little boys and girls may be who try to make themselves so.
It was Jenny who swept out the cottage every morning and dusted the furniture; it was Jenny who fetched water and went to the shop for every thing that was wanted, and her mother often trusted her to carry work home to her employers.
Every thing she did, Jenny tried to do well, and it was always done quickly and properly.
Now can my little readers tell me, how so young a person could be so useful and behave so well? It was by the blessing of God; for, like Joseph of old, God was with her, and that which she did, the Lord made it to prosper.
You will suppose that her time passed very differently from that of Idle Dick, who was, as we read in Isaiah lvii. 20, 21: “Like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt,” for “there is no peace saith my God to the wicked.”
My readers will observe, from this history, how great a difference there is between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who serve him not. Compare Jane and Richard, and say which of these two was the happiest? The boy who knew nothing about Jesus, or the girl who had taken the yoke of Christ upon her?