“‘All things that are done for thee are alike pleasing to thy servant,’ was the answer.
“And the king, turning to his people, said, ‘He is greater than ye all, for his love and obedience make base services as great as royal embassies.’
“Do you understand that, Marion?” he asked, as they turned the familiar corner which brought the school, with its high fence, in sight.
“I think so,” she said, hesitatingly. “Isn’t it that if the Lord gives us a disagreeable thing to do—a duty that seems disgraceful—we should, if we love him, do it just as if it was something noble?”
“That is it, exactly, and there is no disgrace in washing dishes. It seems to me to become a noble service when the tired little hands are working to bring comfort to helpless dear ones.”
He said that very softly, looking away into the soft cloud-banks that were fast resolving themselves into the long, stratified dark lines that bridge the space from dusk to dark. He seemed almost to be talking to himself, but Marion knew well that his words were spoken to comfort her. She would gladly have said some words of thanks, but none seemed to come, not even when he lifted her out of the sleigh at the door, and told her to run in and get warm, could she express the pleasure the day had given her. But, although she did not know it, her delight showed plainly in her bright face, and in the happy sparkle of her big, honest gray eyes.
Mrs. Abbott came home the next morning and engrossed her brother so entirely that Marion would have greatly missed her companion of the last day or two if she had not had full consolation in Elfie’s society. The child’s love for her grew stronger every day, and Candace was almost jealous when her little missy refused to say her prayers with her little bowed head resting upon any one’s lap but Marion’s.
CHAPTER XX.
LETTERS.
The mail-bag came in as usual just after breakfast the next morning, but the number of letters was greatly reduced, of course, and there was no animated, chattering crowd standing about eagerly watching while Mrs. Abbott unlocked the padlock and distributed the letters.