hide up some of the stains! And don't you think the white things-though to be sure they are rather yellow-would look all the better for another rub through water? though mind you, Mary, if you find the extra washing run away with too much time, why I daresay I can take some more of the heavy work off your hands, so that will set us again square."

And from that day forward, Tom's home had looked a different place; not that Mary his wife had ever been an altogether untidy woman, but now it became her chief delight to make the little world of home as cheerful and attractive as she could, because, as Tom had said, "it's what the great Father has done in the world without." Imitation is one of the earliest lessons we teach our little ones, and it is one of the first and last that needs to be learned by the children of the Heavenly King.

And now when that morning Mrs. Grainger had finished shaking hands with Mrs. Morrison, and patting each little curly head in turn, Tom unfolded his thoughts. "I've been thinking," he gravely said, "I should like to do something more for the Master. Of course I know it's a great thing if we do our daily work quite faithfully, but I've some spare time on hand, and the people round here are some of them very dark, poor things. And when I was reading the other day what St. Paul says about the gifts, I couldn't help wishing for one or two of them myself just to do some good with. But then, Ma'am, have you noticed how that word 'helps' comes right in the midst of a list of gifts, such as miracles and preaching, and all that, and I thought, maybe, I could be a 'help' in some small way, though I couldn't be much more. It's what I know Joe Macey was to me."

"Joe Macey, the builder ?" asked Mrs. Grainger.

66

'Yes, that's he. Would you like to hear about it? It was the first time I went to the school-room meeting. It was raining hard that night, or perhaps I might not have gone at all, though to be sure I'd had a good father, and I was beginning to feel a bit tired of a careless sort of life. And Joe stood at the door and gave me such a smile, it

seemed like a welcome to the place, and then there was a draught from the windows, and he saw I felt it, and pointed me out another seat, and afterwards up he came with a hymn-book open at the place. I thought I was being waited on like any gentleman; it seemed as though I was wanted there, and that put me in a good humour, and may be the minister wouldn't have touched me so much as he afterwards did if that 'help' hadn't come first. And so I reckon that when he gets his reward for turning another sinner away from his sin, Joe Macey won't get left out of the count."

"I am sure not," replied Mrs. Grainger; "but what has this to do with you, do you think of filling your friend's place ?"

"No, Ma'am, no," said Tom emphatically; "it's not being a help oneself to be an hindrance to someone else doing his good work. But you see the school-room is some distance away. and the poor folk like to go there better than to church or chapel, at least that's what they say, and so I wondered whether we couldn't have a meeting on a weeknight in the shed at the back. It's a nice clean place, where I do most of my work, and I wouldn't mind them seeing the tools and such-like, for I've made up my mind we must all be in our working-clothes, and not dress up in our Sunday best. You see I like the people to know the God above has as much to do with our working things as ever He has with the rest, and mayhap a good deal more!"

"But how do you make that out, Tom?" asked Mrs. Grainger; she always enjoyed drawing out his thoughts.

"Well, I take it, it's something like my Frankie there. He came home one day from school as proud as you please, because he'd learnt a new rule in sums, and off he said it quick and prompt. But when I gave him a simple thing to do on his slate he soon got it all wrong, and had to give it up. He knew the rule, you see, but he didn't know how to work it out. And it seems to me we learn our rules on Sunday, and then from Monday morning to Saturday night

we've got to see if we can put them in practice. For it's no use knowing we ought to be loving and kind and industrious if we fail in these things when it comes to the push. That's why I say that perhaps the God above has most to do with our working clothes."

"But who will conduct your meeting?" asked Mrs. Grainger, as Tom paused again.

He coloured a little. "I thought perhaps Dr. Grainger would come every now and then, and perhaps another gentleman or two, but it will only be a small affair, and we can't expect them often. Do you think we might manage it sometimes ourselves? I'm not anything of a speaker

myself, but I could give out a hymn, and Joe Macey and one or two others would do the talking. The people round here won't want anything grand, but just something simple and hearty and warm-like. Do you think it will answer,

Madam?" he added anxiously.

"Yes, I think it a capital idea," said his visitor, after a few minutes' thought, "though I am sure you must not reckon on Dr. Grainger at all, he is already too much engaged. But as to your not being a speaker, Tom," she added, with a meaning smile, "perhaps your wife and I might tell a different tale; and your audience will not want anything so very grand as you say.”

"No," said Tom, "the kind I'm wanting to get are the very poorest and worst, just such as I suppose used to gather round our Lord; and it won't do for us to grow too grand and respectable to make them feel out of place."

Mrs. Grainger smiled. She was thinking that if her husband were otherwise engaged on those particular evenings, she might be glad to come to the meetings sometimes, if only to welcome such as she herself would invite. "Then will you think me too respectable to be admitted, Tom ?" she asked;" I might help with the singing, you know."

And Tom's face brightened at once. The singing had been a matter of some anxiety to him, though in any case, Mrs. Grainger's presence would be an unmixed pleasure.

Some further conversation ensued on the subject, and then Mrs. Grainger remarked, “I am so glad you allow poor Mrs. Mason to come sometimes to your family prayers. She has been telling me this morning what a help they have been to her; you have them early, do you not, because of the little ones going to bed?”

“Ah that we do,” broke in Mrs. Morrison from the fireplace, where she was still quietly continuing her cooking operations. "It's the blessedest time in all the day; and I think, maʼam, that even you would like to hear our Tom pray. He doesn't always use the book!"

Again the colour could be seen through Tom's dark skin, and he threw a reproachful glance at his wife, then turned to Mrs. Grainger with a look of half apology. “Perhaps you'll think it presumptuous for me to say my own words, but I'll tell you how it was, for I was a bit nervous at first, and always read from the book. But somehow it seemed too grand-like for us—at least I thought the children didn't understand, and it didn't say nothing about my being out of work, and the rent nearly due, and Mary's bad hand. And so I took to adding a few words of my own, but I wasn't quite sure it was doing right until one evening I was with the children there. Dear me, what a lot the children do teach us to be sure!"

Frankie looked up all attention now, but his father smiled and went on. “No, Frankie, no, it's none too much to your credit after all. Well, ma'am, I'd come home from work, and baby-she was three years old then, but still we called her baby—she climbed on my knee, and Frankie came and stood beside me. He said he'd been put into five syllables that day, and I suppose he remembered how he'd failed about the sums, for there and then he rattled off a dozen words or more. My! there were some strange ones among them, I didn't know the meaning of half. But I told him I was glad he'd been a good boy; and then after that baby began to talk in her way. She couldn't say any of the words properly, but she wanted to tell me how the

kitten had scratched her finger, and she'd been brave and hadn't cried at all. But Frankie there began laughing at her, and the little one turned shy and hid her face on my arm until I sent the boy away, and told her father understood and liked to hear. And then I thought it might be like that with the Father in heaven. The big-syllabled words didn't come natural to me, but the stumbling and lisping did, and He would understand the one as well as the other. And now it seems so easy to tell Him out our wants and feelings, so that even the children have learnt to look forward to the prayer-time before they go to bed!"

And Tom looked round on his family with a father's pride and pleasure, nor knew that, when soon afterward Mrs. Grainger took her leave, she felt as though the simple faith of that one humble working man had been as a very real "help" to her; so true is it that our influence is often the greatest when least consciously exerted, because we leave our mark more by what we are than by anything we do.

To be continued.

CONSTANCE EVELYN.

Let your Light Shine.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."-Matt. v. 16.

HAT makes the moon shine so, mother,

WH

What makes the moon so bright,

That half an hour ago, mother,

Was a little ring of white?

Where did it get its gold, mother,

That glows through the summer night!
I'd like so much to be told, mother,
Where the moon gets its light?

"Has it got a lamp to light, mother,

When the sun has gone to bed,

Like you, when we say at night, mother,

'Bright angels guard our head'?

Does it keep its lamp alight, mother,

As you do all night, you said,

That the children mayn't wake in a fright, mother.
When the sun has gone to bed?"