"How quickly the holidays are passing, to be sure!" Muriel remarked, with a deep sigh. "The time simply flies, and during the term how it drags!"
"I wonder at that," Molly responded. "I always think the time goes so quickly when one is working. Don't you work hard at school?"
"No, not very; not half so hard as Marigold. Miss Smith—she's our governess, you know—says Marigold will leave me in the back-stocks; but then, you see, Marigold has a reason for working. She wants to get on so as to be able to earn her own living, and help her mother, who is poor."
"I understand."
"I like Marigold," Muriel continued, "though I hated her when I first knew her. Did you ever hear how shabbily I treated her?"
Molly shook her head, and Muriel explained the matter. Before she had half finished her tale she regretted not having kept her own counsel, for the other looked both astonished and shocked.
"I don't know why I've told you," the little girl said in conclusion, "because I expect you'll think very badly of me."
"I don't believe you're capable of behaving like that now!" Molly replied, after a minute's pause. Muriel flushed, and looked doubtful, as she hastened to say—
"Oh, I don't know about that! I'm not a bit like Marigold, although I've been trying to be! In spite of her being so lively and full of fun, she's very religious, really! She thinks we ought to return good for evil—there's another girl at our school like her—Grace Long. Such a nice girl she is too! Do you think it makes one happy to be religious?"
"I think it makes one very happy, if by being religious you mean trusting God with all your heart, giving the ordering of your life into His keeping, and casting all your cares upon Him. Anyone who really does that must be happy. We all have troubles and trials, but if God is our Friend half the bitterness is gone from them. 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' I expect you know who wrote those words?"