"What work will you have to do?" asked Elfie, sitting down on the floor close to Susie's stool. Elfie always preferred rolling on the floor to sitting on any kind of seat; and she greatly enjoyed questioning Susie.
"Mother said God would teach me that if I asked him," answered Susie. "I don't know yet what it will be."
"Then why don't you ask him?" said Elfie in her straightforward fashion.
"I do," whispered Susie. "I ask him every night; because I want to do it, and then go home to mother."
"Is that what you do when you kneel down before you get into bed?" asked Elfie.
Susie nodded. "God hears what I say, too," she answered.
"Well, then, why didn't your mother ask him to let her stay and help you to do the work, if she didn't want to go away?" said Elfie sharply.
Susie knew not what to answer. The question puzzled her not a little; and to escape from Elfie's saying any more, she proposed reading a chapter from the Bible.
Elfie had grown tired of playing, and was quite willing to listen. She could not read herself, and was full of wonder that Susie could; and for some time she chattered and questioned so much about this that Susie could not begin; but at last she grew quiet, and Susie turned to her favourite verses in St. Matthew—the story of young children being brought to Jesus.
"That was kind of him to say, 'Let the children come to me,'" said Elfie when Susie paused.