Mamma's friend! In league with her in loving Emmy Lou and desiring to comfort her and protect her! Found not where she had looked for Him at all but here with M'lissy in the alley!
That night, according to rule, as Emmy Lou's head came through the opening of the gown slipped over it, she said:
"Shall I say it now? Papa's blessing?"
And Aunt Cordelia, according to rule, sitting down and steadying Emmy Lou to her knees, waited.
What should have brought it back, Emmy Lou's own little prayer as taught her by Mamma? She only knew that it came of itself, and that while her heart heaved and her breath came hard, she stopped in the midst of Papa's blessing, "We thank Thee, Lord, for this provision of Thy bounty,——" sobbed, caught herself, opened her eyes and looked mutely at Aunt Cordelia, closed them and said:
"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look upon a little child;
Pity my simplicity,
Suffer me to come to Thee."
II
SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE