_ may go to Heaven, Amma, but _I_ may
not!" She had nothing more to say; and we wondered how she could
possibly have arrived at so extraordinary a conclusion, till we
remembered that it had been explained to the babies that any baby
falling in would probably be drowned and die, and so until it was
finished and made safe no baby must go near it. Chellalu had evidently
argued that as to die meant going to Heaven, the well must be the way to
Heaven; and as only grown-up people might go near it, they, and they
alone apparently, were allowed to go to Heaven.

These babies are nothing if not practical. Arulai had been teaching the
story of the Unmerciful Servant; and to bring it down to nursery life,
supposed the case of a baby who snatched at other babies' toys, and was
unfair and selfish. Such a baby, if not reformed, would grow up and be
like the Unmerciful Servant. The babies looked upon the back of the
offender as shown in the picture. "Bad man! Nasty man!" they said to
each other, pointing to him with aversion. And Arulai closed the class
with a short prayer that none of the babies might ever be like the
Unmerciful Servant.

The prayer over, the babies rushed to the table where their toys were
put during the Scripture lesson. Pyarie got there first, and, gathering
all she could reach, she swept them into her lap and was darting off
with them, when a word from Arulai recalled her. For a moment there was
a struggle. Then she ran up to Tingalu, the child she had chiefly
defrauded, poured all her treasures into her lap, and then sprang into
Arulai's arms with the eager question: "Acca! Acca! Am I not a
_Merciful_ Servant?"

CHAPTER XXIV

The Accals

"This sacred work demands not lukewarm, selfish,
slack souls, but hearts more finely tempered than
steel, wills purer and harder than the
diamond."--PERE DIDON.

[Illustration: PONNAMAL, WITH PREETHA ON HER KNEE, AND TARA BESIDE HER.]

THE Accals, without whom this work in all its various branches could not
be undertaken, are a band of Indian sisters (the word Accal means older
sister) who live for the service of the children. First among the Accals
is Ponnamal (Golden). With the quick affection of the East the children
find another word for Gold and call her doubly Golden Sister.

Sometimes we are asked if we ever find an Indian fellow-worker whom we
can thoroughly trust. The ungenerous question would make us as indignan