who
have found their frost has preserved their dewdrops to be diamonds for
ever. If this is too fanciful, don't read it, but I go rambling on
as the notions come into my head, and if you only get a laugh at my
dreamings, they will have been of some use to you.'

'How beautiful!' said Violet; 'how you must have liked receiving such
letters!'

'Yes; the greatest blank in the day is post time.'

He held out his hand for the book, and found another passage for her.

'I have been thinking how kindly that sentence is framed: "Casting all
your care on Him." All, as if we might have been afraid to lay before
Him our petty perplexities. It is the knowing we are cared for in
detail, that is the comfort; and that when we have honestly done our
best in little things, our Father will bless them, and fill up our
shortcomings.

'That dressmaker must have been a happy woman, who never took home
her work without praying that it might fit. I always liked that story
particularly, as it shows how the practical life in the most trivial
round can be united with thus casting all our care upon Him--the being
busy in our own station with choosing the good part. I suppose it is as
a child may do its own work in a manufactory, not concerning itself for
the rest; or a coral-worm make its own cell, not knowing what branches
it is helping to form, or what an island it is raising. What a mercy
that we have only to try to do right from moment to moment, and not
meddle with the future!'

'Like herself,' said John.

'I never thought of such things,' said Violet. 'I never thought little
matters seemed worth treating in this way.'

'Everything that is a duty or a grief must be worth it,' said John.
'Consider the worthlessness of what we think most important in That
Presence. A kingdom less than an ant's nest in comparison. But, here,
I must show you a more everyday bit. It was towards the end, when she
hardly ever left her grandfather, and I had been writing to urge her to
spare herself.'

Violet read--

'You need not be afraid, dear John; I am quite equal to all I have to
do. Fatigue never knocks me up, which is a great blessing; and I can
sleep anywhere at the shortest notice. Indeed, I don't know what should
tire me, for there is not even any running up and down stairs; and as
to spirits, you would not think them in danger if you heard how I talk
parish matters to the curate, and gossip with the doctor, till grandpapa
brightens, and I ha