"Oh, we don't talk only at recess. Now please don't be angry,
Brother Phillip, for I never said anything."
"Thank you little Miss Discretion. I am very glad that you do not indulge in gossip. Listen to what Solomon says," and going to the book-case Phillip took therefrom a Bible, and read from Proverbs xvii. 9,—
"He that repeateth a matter separateth very friends."
Lottie saw that her brother did not wish to hear more on the subject, and she again took up the bunch of pressed ferns which had arrived from "Gladswood."
"I wish that I could be as good as Jennie Montgomery. Why she's scarcely ever idle one moment during the whole day, and she never seems happy but when she is helping some person. Do you know Brother Phillip the oldest people around love her, and she goes and reads to the sick and runs all the errands for the sick herself."
"I am glad you observed so closely my dear, and I hope Lottie Lawson may one day be as good a woman as friend Jennie," said Phillip very earnestly.
"Oh, I know I never can have the happy way of setting everything right that is wrong, and taking the tangles out of the most common affairs the same way that Jennie does. Oh, no, Brother Phillip, don't expect me to be anything like that."
The fond brother could not fail to see that there was a vein of good sense running all through the child's remarks, and he also noted her quaint style of application.
The appearance of Kitty, the housemaid, interrupted further reply. With a respectful air the domestic made known to her master that, owing to the death of a near relative, she had to remove to the country to take charge of a family of small children.
"Indeed, Mr. Lawson, you have been a good, kind master to me, and that angel there"—pointing to Lottie—"the likes of her is not in St. John. But I'll hear from yous often and when Tim is in town he'll run in to see how yous are gettin' on."