us, the greater part of four
years was spent in a beautiful spot at the foot of the hills of the
Donegal Highlands on the banks of Lough Swilly, one of the loveliest of
the Irish lakes. This period is spoken of by her sister as one in which
she appeared utterly indifferent to spiritual things, yet some entries
in her journal indicate an intense longing after a higher life. They
certainly show that she knew the sinfulness of her own heart and the
weakness of her resolutions, and that, in common with so many reserved
natures, while hiding the true state of her feelings from others, she
was much given to introspection and inclined to magnify her faults. Such
reserved natures do not "wear their heart on their sleeve," and it
should be a comfort to parents and teachers who are anxiously watching
children to know that "things are not always what they seem," and that
many a child who seems altogether careless is in reality not far from
the kingdom.

In January, 1848, when a little over fifteen, she was sent to school at
Stratford-on-Avon, and remained there until her father's death in 1850.
The good discipline of this school and the wise guidance of her teachers
had a most wholesome effect on the development of her character, and the
steady, indomitable perseverance in the face of difficulties which so
marked her after-life distinguished her then. By her painstaking and
close attention she made up for her want of quickness in learning. Hence
she never forgot what she had once learned.

The actual time of her conversion seems to have been during the period
that she resided with her mother and sister in Dublin. To the earnest
man of God whose ministry they attended, the preparation of the younger
members of his flock for admission to the Lord's Supper was no
perfunctory task. He introduced her, with others of his candidates, to
one of his helpers as "anxious inquirers." So shy and reserved was Agnes
that she said but little, yet this lady remarked of her:--"In the class
her intense appetite for the living bread was so apparent, that I often
felt myself speaking to her only, her calm gentle eyes fixed on me, as
God helped me to speak."

It is impossible for those who have definitely accepted Christ's
salvation, and who truly realise His love to perishing sinners, to be
idlers in His vineyard. We are therefore not surprised to find her soon
at work, her own particular plot being in the ragged school. Her needy
little scholars w