"I did want to; but I did not know as it would be right," said Nelly. "Kitty Brown says she does not believe it is right to pray about such things,—only about our souls."
"I rather think Kitty has not looked into her Catechism lately," said Miss Powell. "Are we not to ask God to give us all things needful for our souls and bodies?"
"Yes, ma'am. I didn't think of that, though, when we were talking about it."
"You need never be afraid to ask God for any thing," said Miss Powell. "If you have a desire that you are afraid to ask God to bless, be sure that desire is wrong and ought to be put down."
"It can't be wrong for me to want to keep my place and earn money to pay for our house," said Nelly.
"No, indeed. But Nelly, you must pray in faith, my child. You must not ask God in the morning to give you strength and wisdom to do your duty through the day, and then go on worrying for fear you shall not do it. That would be casting your burden upon the Lord and then taking it up and carrying it away again. A great many people go on in that way all their lives, and get very little good from it. You must ask him to help you and then believe he will, and go on in the strength of that prayer. Try it, and see if he does not keep his promise."
Nelly followed her friend's advice, and found, as every one will who honestly trusts Him, that he does keep his promise. She strove resolutely to put away all thoughts of the store and her work as soon as she went to bed, and to give her last waking thoughts to God, by repeating the hymns, verses and prayers she had learned in Sunday-school. She presently found herself beginning to sleep much better, and her work no longer troubled her dreams. Mrs. Kirkland took care to send her upon all the errands, and Nelly found the exercise very beneficial to her.
It troubled Nelly a good deal that she had so little time for her lessons. She could not go to Mrs. Caswell with her arithmetic more than twice a week, and then she found time to prepare only a very short recitation. She comforted herself with the thought that she was learning in one way, if not in another (which was true; for she was learning to be very ready in making change and calculating prices), and also in thinking that she would have more time after the holidays, when the rush of work and trade should slacken a little.
Nelly had another trouble in the store, which she did not mention to Miss Powell, but which distressed her greatly. She was pretty sure that she several times missed little articles, which had not passed through her hands. They were not things of any very great value,—a stick of braid of some special sort, a few odd buttons of some particular pattern, a spool or two of coloured silk out of a box which should have been full,—but Nelly was sure that they did not go properly. She could not suspect any one in the shop. There was no one employed but herself and Miss Powell down-stairs and Miss Lennox up-stairs. Mrs. Kirkland was usually at the desk, busied, when not making change or engaged with the books, in some wonderful piece of embroidery.
Nelly came to the conclusion that the thief was one of the habitual customers of the store. She resolved to watch closely. She did so, and at last made up her mind. The thief was that very lady who had called her a ragamuffin while she was learning to make tatting on her first entrance to the store! Nelly was very slow in coming to this conclusion. She could not make up her mind to think that a lady belonging to a respectable family; who had always been well taught, always gone to church and to Sunday-school, could be guilty of stealing. She even accused herself of uncharitableness and bearing malice because the lady had affronted her. But the more closely she watched the more sure she became that her suspicions were correct.