“Only ‘Now I lay me.’ Grandma taught me that when I was a little mite of a boy.”
“I will teach you another, the best that was ever made, because it says all we need ask.”
“Our folks wasn’t very pious; they didn’t have time, I s’pose.”
“I wonder if you know just what it means to be pious?”
“Goin’ to church, and readin’ the Bible, and sayin’ prayers and hymns, aint it?”
“Those things are a part of it, but, being kind and cheerful, doing one’s duty, helping others and loving God, is the best way to show that we are pious in the true sense of the word.”
“Then you are!” and Ben looked as if her acts had been a better definition than her words.
“I try to be, but I very often fail; so every Sunday I make new resolutions, and work hard to keep them through the week. That is a great help, as you will find when you begin to try it.”
“Do you think, if I said in meetin’, ‘I wont ever swear any more,’ that I wouldn’t do it again?” asked Ben, soberly, for that was his besetting sin just now.
“I’m afraid we can’t get rid of our faults quite so easily; I wish we could; but I do believe that if you keep saying that, and trying to stop, you will cure the habit sooner than you think.”