"Do you recollect a little prayer you taught us at the mission school, Miss Howard?"
This lady and Esther were sitting at their sewing when the child timidly asked the question. She was gradually becoming accustomed to kind words, losing the habit of starting, when suddenly addressed, as though she feared a blow.
Esther's hands trembled with eagerness as she asked the question.
"Do you mean the prayer which begins, 'Help me, dear Lord'?"
"Yes, ma'am." The child closed her eyes, bent her head forward just in the old way she had been taught, and repeated the whole prayer with a solemnity and fervor which deeply affected the hearer.
"Help me, dear Lord, this day, to be honest, faithful, and true toward my fellows, and above all to love Thee, blessed Saviour, with all my heart. Help me to remember that God sees all that I do, and hears all that I say, and that He is able to protect and guide all those who put their trust in Him. For Jesus Christ's sake, we ask this. Amen."
With a half-checked sob the child went on, gradually forgetting her timidity, and giving to her faithful teacher an insight into her poor, lonely, repressed life which was never forgotten.
"O Miss Howard! it frightens me to think how bad I was at the mission school. I used to whisper and set the girls to laughing, and waste my thread, and do so many naughty things. Miss Farnum ought to have put me out. But if she had," sighing, "I never should have learned that good prayer" (speaking with great awe) "and then what should I have done when I was in such trouble?
"I used to kneel in the corner and repeat it over and over till it seemed like I heard Jesus' voice say, 'I will, child.' Once when he"—she always alluded to her husband as he—"came home drunk, and beat me, I worried 'cause I couldn't get to my corner and kneel down. I did manage to sit up in bed and put my hands together as you told us, and I said it over and over in my heart. I thought, maybe as He knows all about us, He'd know how it hurt me to move, and wouldn't mind if I did cry and moan, 'cause I couldn't help it."
"My poor child. I am very glad you knew where to go for comfort. Did you ever try to form a prayer for yourself?"