Mrs. Paget smiled.
"You make out a hard case, Amity. But now will you let me ask you two or three serious questions?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Why do you suppose God made you and set you in this world?"
"I don't know," answered Amity, rather doubtfully.
"Doesn't it seem as if he must have meant you to do something?"
"I suppose so," answered Amity. "The trouble is to find out what he wants me to do."
"If you really wish to work for him, I don't think you will fail in finding work," said Mrs. Paget. "I never knew any of his children to suffer in that way. The difficulty often is that they are not willing to do the work which he provides, but they want to do something else—something which shall make a great figure in the eyes of the world, or perhaps of the church; something which will be pleasant and easy, or for which they fancy they have a particular genius, which nobody appreciates. A young lady thinks it would be a fine thing to be a 'Sister of Charity,' though she cannot possibly sit up at night with a sick neighbor, or help to lay out a dead child. She wants to go on a foreign mission, but she can't take a class in Sunday-school or sewing-school."
"That reminds me of something," said Amity, eagerly. "I heard you say the other day that you wanted some patchwork basted for the sewing-school, and I thought perhaps you would let me do it. Mother taught me to sew when I was very little, and I like patchwork. I have made a whole bed-quilt for a lady in the hospital since I came here."
"Then it seems you have one talent, and a very useful one. As to the patchwork, I assure you I shall be glad to turn the whole basket over to you, if only I can depend on your having the work ready—if you won't get tired of it after a week or two."