"ALICE WENT DOWN THE DUSTY ROAD."
"I am afraid they do not," said Alice, "and, Fred, it is a good thing to want to tell others the good news and perhaps the Lord will want you to do that when you are older. Who knows?"
Then little Annie Andrus spoke.
"I think, teacher, that I am a better girl than I was, because I do not get so vexed at sister May when she pulls my curls mornings; I used to scream sometimes, and now I just set my teeth hard and ask Jesus to help me to keep back the yell! and I haven't quarrelled with Kittie in a week."
Fannie Brown was older than Annie, indeed she was the oldest scholar in school, and as Alice turned towards her, she said softly,
"I am so happy, and the little hymns which you have taught us keep bubbling over all the time. Everything goes right, and I love the Saviour, and am trying all the time to do what He would like to have me do. I don't know as it is being a Christian, but I want to be one, if I am not."
"What makes you so queer to-night?" asked May that evening.
"Queer, am I?" returned Alice.
"Yes, queer and quiet. Your face shines as if you had heard some wonderful news or something."
"I have!" said Alice. "I have heard of that which angels smile over." And then she told May the story of the afternoon, and May replied, more soberly than her wont, "I declare, Alice Merwyn, if there is anything in religion that will subdue such a boy as Fred Pratt has been I shall believe in it! Why, he has been the terror of the neighborhood! And dear little Annie! I shall never twitch her hair again."