o see how little this refuge
served her.

"I have been a human being," she told herself, with a flush on her face,
"and I ought to have had sufficient interest in humanity to have wanted
those poor creatures civilized."

But there was another thrust preparing for Flossy. The reader presently
touched upon one item of expenditure common to ladies, namely, kid
gloves; and made the bewildering statement that economy in this matter,
to the degree that needless purchases should be avoided, would treble
the fund in the missionary treasury! It could not be that from among
that sea of faces the speaker had singled out Flossy Shipley, and yet
that is the way it seemed to her. If there was any one expense which
stood out glaringly above another in her list of luxuries it was kid
gloves. They must be absolutely immaculate as to quality, shade and fit,
and she remorselessly consigned them to the waste-bag at the first hint
of rip or change of color. How strange that Mrs. Miller should have
pitched upon just that item, and what an amazing declaration to make
concerning it!

It was very strange, had any one been looking on to observe it, the
manner in which this young girl was being educated. It is doubtful if a
whole year of church work in the regular home routine, listening to the
stated, statistical sermon of her pastor, that sermon which presupposes
so much more knowledge than people possess, would have _begun_ to do for
Flossy what the strange, fanciful, pungent story of "Fair Haven" did.

* * * * *

Before that hour was closed she had settled within her resolute little
heart a plan that should henceforth put her in close communion and
sympathy with mission work--not exactly the plans of operation, except
that kid gloves and peanuts took stern places in the background, but
this was simply the foundation for a resolute system of education,
carried all through her future life.

What a pity it seems sometimes that people cannot read the hearts and
watch the springs of action of those around them. If Mrs. Miller, as
she closed her paper and moved away from the platform, could have seen
the earnest purpose glowing and throbbing in Flossy's heart, and have
known that it was born of words of hers, what a glad and thankful heart
would she have carried back to her tent!

Also, if the much troubled pastor at home could have taken peeps into
the future and seen what Flossy Shipley's resolves would do f