So the two little waifs knelt in their corner with their eyes tightly shut, and Bob prayed in a low voice—-
"Please, Sir, me an' Willie wants to find Yer. Make us good boys, an' show us the way."
"Say 'men, Bob," said Willie, "like the lady did."
And Bob said "'men."
CHAPTER IV
A VISITOR FOR WILLIE
What made Mrs. Blair sit up late that night, watching the fire, instead of going to bed quickly as she usually did? Willie's question had taken her back in thought to the time when she was a little girl. She remembered the lovely village where she was born; she fancied herself a girl again, running about the sweet-scented lanes and the green fields. She could see the honeysuckle all out in bloom, as it climbed over the cottage door and peeped in at the windows; but, most of all, she thought of her mother and the prayer she taught her to say every night as she knelt at her knee. But her mother was dead, and she had not been near the village for many years. In that time she had forgotten all the lessons her mother had tried to teach her, and now when little Willie wanted her to show him the way to Jesus she was not able to do so. It was many years since she had taken the name of Jesus upon her lips. She had been a hard-working woman all her life, and she had no time to think about Him. But now she wished she had. She would have been glad if she could have told little Willie what he wanted to know.
From this time the boys never forgot to speak to Jesus, as Willie called it, every morning and evening. They went to the mission services regularly every week, and Miss Elton and her brother began to take a great interest in the children. The boys listened eagerly to every word that was said, and carried it faithfully home to Mrs. Blair, for she, poor woman, seemed quite as anxious to find Jesus as the children had been.
Willie's "pretty lady" had quite won the children's hearts, so that Willie had lost all his shyness with her; and as for the lady herself, she delighted to bear him chatter. Bob told her all about their life in Primrose Place, and on the streets since, and what a good friend Mrs. Blair had been to them.
"Why, you see," she said, "Jesus has been taking care of you all the time; only you did not know it."