'La! I wish I was a good scholar like you,' said Betsey Ann, as Rosalie quickly turned over the leaves, and found the verse she had fixed on the night before for her first lesson to the poor ignorant kitchen-maid.
'For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.'
'Isn't that a beautiful verse?' said little Rosalie; 'I used to read it to my mammie, and she liked it so much.'
'Tell me about it,' said Betsey Ann; 'put it plain like for me.'
'"Ye know,"' said Rosalie,—'that's how it begins. You don't know, Betsey
Ann, but you will do soon, won't you?'
'La! yes,' said the girl; 'I hope I shall.'
'"Ye know the grace." I'm not quite sure what grace means; I was thinking about it the other day. And now my mammie's dead, I've no one to ask about things; but I think it must mean love; it seems as if it ought to mean love in this verse; and He does love us, you know, Betsey Ann, so we can't be far wrong if we say it means love.'
'"Ye know the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, "—that's the One we talked about last night, the One who loves you, Betsey Ann. "That though He was rich, "—that means He lived in heaven, my mammie said, and had ever so many angels to wait on Him, and everything He wanted, all bright and shining. "Yet for your sakes, "—that means your sake, Betsey Ann, just as much as if it had said, "You know the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for Betsey Ann's sake He became poor."'
'Well, I never!' said Betsey Ann.
'Poor,' repeated the child; 'so poor, my mammie said, that He hadn't a house, and had to tramp about from one place to another, and had to work in a carpenter's shop, and used to be hungry just like we are.'