Nora glanced up amazed. "What is it, nursie?" she said.
"I was wonderin', my lambie, what kind o' crown is to sit on your bonnie brow. Is it to be the crown o' a vain world's folly, or the everlasting ane your mother prayed so earnestly might rest there? Ye canna hae baith, I'm thinkin'. Missie, which is it to be?"
Then Nora raised her head undaunted. "Oh, don't be frightened, nurse; I am going to be all mamma wished me to be. Indeed, indeed I am trying to be that which is 'above rubies.'"
The old woman smiled, but shook her head. "Ay—ay, I'm glad to hear it, missie; but mind you begin at the right end—'God be merciful to me a sinner.' The virtuous woman Solomon alludes to, is the one who has the fear of the Lord in her heart, and whose trust is in him, not in her own power o' doin' right. And the same wise king says, my dear, 'The Lord giveth grace unto the lowly.' Have you sought strength and help frae the Lord Jesus aboot this matter, Miss Nora?"
The girl rose quickly. "Oh, yes," she said; "but I must be going now. The children were to meet me half-way. Good-bye, nurse. Shall I send your love to Ronald when I write?"
"Ay, do, please; and tell him old Peggy'll no forget to pray for her bairn. Fare-ye-weel."
One friendly nod, and Nora was off, down the path through the pass, with as bounding a step as the mountain roe. But through the sound of the autumn wind, she seemed to hear the words:
"Have you sought strength and help from the Lord Jesus in this matter?"
It was almost the same question her little cousin had put to her, expressed in her baby language; and, somehow, Nora felt she did not care to look the question in the face and give it a true answer. So to drown thought, she began to sing, and just then little Minnie ran to meet her, and together they continued their walk.