Her husband opened the Bible, but turned over its leaves with an air of embarrassment.
"What shall I read, wife?" he asked.
She found him the 103rd Psalm, and slowly, and not without difficulty, for he was "no great scholar," as he often told his children, he read it.
The prayer was a harder matter. Memory came to his aid, however, recalling words familiar to his ears in boyhood, and in tremulous accents, he repeated the Lord's Prayer. Then he ventured to add a few words of thanksgiving for the especial blessings they, as a family, had received, with humble confession of sin. Broken and imperfect utterances they were, but spoken from the heart, and inspired by the Spirit of God.
That evening, watching angels could say of Joseph Mansfield, as was said of one of old, "Behold, he prayeth," and had cause to rejoice that to another of earth's homes, salvation had come. There were tears in his wife's eyes as she rose from her knees, but they were not tears of sorrow. The habit thus commenced was never dropped. Henceforth, not a day was allowed to close, without a portion of God's Word being read and a brief prayer offered.
All too quickly for Ellen, the happy hours passed by, and the day came when she must return to her work at Charmouth. It was with much regret that she said good-bye to her home once more. Had the choice been offered her, she would have preferred to remain at home, and help her mother with the domestic duties she had formerly despised. But it was too late to change her plans. Her assistance was no longer urgently needed, for baby was now out of hand, and Lucy was able to give her mother all the help she needed.
Ellen had made her decision, and must abide by it. Recognising this, she put a cheerful face upon the matter, and bravely, though with a somewhat heavy heart, went back to her tedious occupation, resolved to serve her aunt, not with "eye-service," but as "the servant of Christ."
She gradually became more accustomed to her aunt's peculiarities, and learned to love her in spite of them. Miss Mansfield treated her niece with kindness, and her demeanour showed that she was actuated by a different spirit from that which had influenced her in the past. But she still spoke quickly and sharply on occasion, and never quite lost her love of scolding, for the habit of a lifetime is not easily broken.
[CHAPTER XV.]
TEN YEARS LATER.