"Well, they did—that is, all except Sarah. Poor Sarah! You should have heard how mother used to scold her, and she never used to answer back. Sarah was sorry when mother died; she cried dreadfully. Mrs. Mudford was always saying she wondered Sarah put up with the place, because she was for ever hard at work stitching about mother's gowns, and never had any thanks. I miss Sarah. She used to come and talk with me after I was in bed, and tell me not to be afraid, but to remember Jesus was there. We used to have such nice talks. I was afraid of the dark, because one of my nurses had frightened me."
"How?" Dora inquired, much interested.
"Oh, about ghosts! Such nonsense! It seems silly, doesn't it? But I believed her because I was so young, you know, and there was no one to tell me it wasn't true. She used to tell me the ghosts would carry me off if I cried, or was naughty, and I quite thought it was true. I have been in bed shaking with fright for hours sometimes, expecting something awful to happen."
"Oh, Stella, how dreadful! Didn't your mother know?"
"No, I suppose not—of course not, she was always out somewhere evenings. Then I grew too big for a nurse, and mother sent me to a day-school, and Sarah came to do the sewing. I remember Sarah finding me crying in bed one night, and asking me what was amiss. I told her, and then she said if I trusted in Jesus He would not let any harm come to me. Ever afterwards when I was very frightened I used to repeat a verse out of the Bible that Sarah told me, and then I used to feel that Jesus was with me."
"What was the verse?" Dora asked.
"'I will trust and not be afraid.'"
"Stella," said her cousin in an awed whisper, "didn't your mother teach you about Jesus?"
"No, she hadn't time, or perhaps she didn't think—" Stella looked red, and distressed. "Mother was not religious," she explained; "she used to go to church, of course, but—oh, I don't know how it was, but she didn't care to talk about God, she said it made her melancholy."
"Well, our mother is not melancholy, and she often talks about God."