atest power in the world.

[Illustration: ONE OF THE "PENDS" OR "CLOSES" WHERE MARY VISITED THE
BOYS IN HER CLASS.]

Through the hearts of the boys Mary found her way to their homes in the
slums, and paid visits to their mothers and sisters, and saw that life
to them was often very hard and wretched. The other Mission workers used
to go two and two, but she often went alone. Once she was a long time
away, and when she came back she said laughingly:

"I've been dining with the Macdonalds in Quarry Pend."

"Indeed," said some one, "and did you get a clean plate and spoon?"

"Oh, never mind that," replied Mary. "I've got into their house and been
asked to come back, and that's all I care about."

She always went in the same spirit in which Jesus would have gone.
Sometimes she would sit by the fire with the baby on her knees;
sometimes she would take tea with the family, drinking out of a broken
cup; sometimes she would help the mother to finish a bit of work. And
always she cheered up tired and anxious hearts, and left sunshine and
peace where there had been only the blackness of despair.

No one could be long in her company without feeling better, and not a
few of her friends came, through her, to know and love and work for
Jesus. "Three weeks after I knew her," says one of her old factory
mates, "I became a different girl." How eager and earnest she was! "Oh!"
she said to a companion, "I wonder what we would do or dare for Jesus?
Would we be burned at the stake? Would we give our lives for His sake?"
"She _did_ work hard," says another, "and whatever she did, she did with
heart and soul."

When the Mission was removed to the rooms under the church, the
superintendent said: "We shall need a charwoman to give the place a
thorough cleaning."

"Nonsense," said Mary; "we will clean it ourselves."

"You ladies clean such a dirty hall!"

"Ladies!" cried Mary; "we are no ladies, we are just ordinary working
folk."

Next night Mary and another teacher were found, with sleeves turned up
and aprons on, busy with pails of water and brushes scrubbing out the
rooms. Like other young people, she had her troubles, big and little,
and these she met bravely. Evil-minded persons, jealous of her goodness,
sometimes said unkind things about her, but she never paid any heed to
them. She always did what she thought was right, and went her own way.
On Saturdays she used to put her hair in curlpapers, and her companions
teased her