“Daffy,” said Louise, “I will read to you now out of the dear book.”
Daph sat down reverently on her low bench, and Charlie, in imitation, quietly took his own little chair.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” read the subdued voice of the child, while the negro bent forward to catch each word of the beautiful psalm.
“She do be one of the great shepherd’s lambs, sure ’nough,” murmured Daph, as the little girl closed the book and said,
“Now Daffy, we’ll sing a hymn.”
Little Charlie joined his voice with that of his earnest sister, and poor Daph, ’mid fast flowing tears, added her notes of praise to that evening hymn. Joy and peace that evening pervaded those few hearts in that humble room, for it was bright with His presence who has said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
XIII.
Mary Ray.
It was midnight. Charlie and Louise were locked in the sound sleep of youth and vigorous health; but Daph, with the half-wakefulness of a faithful dog, was not so dead to the outer world.