"What did you want to do that for?"
Now for it! This was the best chance she could ever hope to have, and her voice trembled a little:
"I wanted to please Jesus too, mother, and Mr. Holbrook said if I did things to help you, and that you would like, He would be glad—-Jesus would, you know." A little silence, and then: "I want to please Jesus all the time now, because I love Him, and I'm going to try to do right."
It was all out now, and her heart was beating so that it almost stopped her voice. Her mother shaded her face with her hand, and neither spoke nor moved. Kitty waited a little, then moved slowly towards the door of her bit of a bedroom; it was moonlight, so she needed no candle.
"Good-night, mother," she found courage to say at last.
"Good-night;" and her mother's voice sounded strangely, coming from behind the closely-held hand.
There was something like a great sob in Kitty's throat as she went to her room that night; in her heart was a great longing for mother-love. She would have liked to kiss her mother good-night, but she felt how queerly that would look; even to say good-night was something very unusual. So she knelt down beside her bed, and prayed for her mother.
I don't think Mr. Holbrook knew that the few kind words which he spoke to Kitty Lewis, on her way home from prayer-meeting, were seeds which were going to spring up and bear fruit unto everlasting life.