"But you can do your best, and you can learn to do better," said Miss Powell. "Believe me, Nelly, it is much more important to learn to put in a patch nicely than it is to make the prettiest tatting that ever was seen; and it is not half so hard. And there is one more thing I want to say, Nelly. I shall not give you these things out and out, but upon the condition that out of every dollar you earn, you shall put by two cents, to be given to some person who is worse off than you are."
"Well, I will," said Nelly, much interested. "It is nice to have something to give away. I guess," she added, after some consideration, "I guess I had better mend my frock before I begin my tatting; because when I once begin I shall not want to stop."
"That is a very good plan. Well, good-by, my dear child. And Nelly, just one last word more. You must not forget to ask God's blessing on your work. Ask him to help you, and above all to make you a good girl."
These last words furnished Nelly with food for thought all the way home. She had for some days been trying very hard to be a good girl, but she did not succeed very well. She was conscious that she had been naughty that very morning in speaking disrespectfully and unkindly to her grandmother; and it came upon her heart like a weight when she remembered that she had seen tears in the old woman's eyes. She had been sorry directly, but she had been too proud and in too much of a hurry to say so, and she ran away without even saying good-by. She had meant never to be naughty again, after she had heard those beautiful chapters about heaven; but her resolutions had not seemed to do her much good. But if God would help her for the asking, it seemed to make her way much plainer.
"I will ask him just as soon as I go to bed," she thought; and then it occurred to her to inquire why she should not ask now. It would be a good many hours to bedtime, and she might do many naughty things before then. Nelly was not quite sure that it was right for her to speak to God without kneeling down and shutting her eyes, as she did when she said the prayer Kitty Brown taught her; but she resolved at last to risk it. Her prayer was very short. "Please make me a good girl. I want to be good and go to heaven; but I don't seem to know how. Please help me to be good and do my work nicely and be kind to granny. Please help me to learn to read quick, so I can go to Sunday-school. Amen."
Nelly went on with a lighter heart after her prayer, and found her granny busy over the dinner, and apparently taking more than usual pains with her cookery.
"How nice the dinner smells!" said Nelly. "What are you boiling, granny?"
"Sure, Mrs. Powers gave me a piece of bacon, and I have cut some greens on the common. So you'll have bacon and greens for your dinner," returned Mrs. Ryan; "and that's more than you desarve, being so cross to your own granny, that brought ye up."
Nelly had been, thinking, all the way home, that she would tell granny she was sorry for her hasty words; but this reproach touched her ever ready pride, and she was about to make a hasty reply,—when something said to her, "And are you going to do wrong the very first minute after you have asked God to help you be good?" Nelly swallowed something like a hard lump which rose in her throat, and answered,—
"Well, granny, I am sorry I was so naughty, and I won't be so any more. You are a dear, good granny, and I love you ever so much!"