“Jane,” she said, opening her Testament, and turning over the leaves hurriedly, “this was papa’s text a little while ago: ‘For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool; are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?’ If we don’t take this little girl into our pew we ‘have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.’”
“I don’t know what to do,” answered Jane, sighing; “the Bible seems plain, but I’m sure papa would not like it. Let us ask the chapel-keeper.”
“Oh, no, no!” cried Jessica, “don’t let Mr. Daniel catch me here. I wont come again, indeed; and I’ll promise not to try to find out about God and the minister, if you’ll only let me go.”
“But, little girl,” said Jane, in a sweet but grave manner, “we ought to teach you about God, if you don’t know him. Our papa is the minister, and if you’ll come with us we’ll ask him what we must do.”
“Will Mr. Daniel see me?” asked Jessica.
“Nobody but papa is in the vestry,” answered Jane, “and he’ll tell us all, you and us, what we ought to do. You’ll not be afraid of him, will you?”
“No,” said Jessica cheerfully, following the minister’s children as they led her along the side of the chapel towards the vestry.
“He is not such a terrible personage,” said Winny, looking round encouragingly, as Jane tapped softly at the door, and they heard a voice saying, “Come in.”