Her breath almost stopped. "Can I pray before him?" But before he noticed her hesitation she was on her knees at his side. Like a little child, running to his father whose arms were outstretched to fold her in his embrace, so she ran to her Heavenly Father, and told Him all her desires for this dear friend. She asked the Saviour to reveal Himself to the poor, desolate heart, wearied with carrying its burden alone. She pleaded with the gracious, waiting Spirit to help him open his heart to this dearest and truest of friends; that the Holy Spirit would take of the things of Christ, and show them unto him; that, like the man dying of hunger, he might ask for the food from the abundant supply before him, and be filled.
Poor Mr. Lambert! He wholly lost control, and, before she rose from prayer, sobbed without restraint. As she took his hand to wish him good by, he looked up into her face with such a pitiful expression that it almost overcame her.
"Oh," she exclaimed, "do trust Him! He is waiting for you to say, 'Lord, I believe!'"
[CHAPTER X.]
NEDDY CARTER'S MISSION.
WHEN Neddy Carter was carried from the hospital, he was at once admitted to one of the mission schools; but he begged so hard that he might still make his home with his mother that he was permitted to do so. He said nothing of his motives in preferring a bed on a pile of straw to a comfortable cot in the mission house, but he had a strong motive, which soon began to appear.
Unassisted and even unknown to his best friends, he gathered a few little ones in his mother's garret, and then repeated to them the instructions he had gained. Perhaps his pleasant blue eyes, gazing so frankly into theirs, had made him a favorite before; or it might be that the sight of him, wheeling about in his chair, enduring so bravely the great trial that had come upon him gave him influence over his companions. At any rate, he had influence and he used it to win them to better paths.
Miss Howard learned something of this, and was so rejoiced at it that she resolved to visit him in his home. She had never been there since the day of Neddy's accident, when, with Hepsey's help, she had had him conveyed in the ambulance to the hospital.
This visit occurred on the Sunday afternoon following her call on Mr. Lambert, described in the last chapter. It so delighted her that she longed for Mr. Lambert to know how the boy he had befriended was using his influence for Christ.
On Thursday of the following week she called upon the sick man, and found he was out for a drive. Sitting in his room, she wrote him a hurried note, asking him to accompany her to see a mutual friend on Sunday afternoon, enclosing in the note a piece of poetry she had selected for him. She left the whole with the servant, requesting an answer to be sent to her house.