y help smiling.

"'That isn't what I meant,' she said. 'I mean, what is the _good_ of
saying your prayers if you don't believe what you say?'

"'But I do, I do,' I sobbed.

"'Then why are you so terrified? You asked God to take care of you. When
you said it you believed He would. Why not believe it now? _Now_, when
you are tried, is the time to show if you do mean what you say. I am sure
God _will_ take care of us. Now try, dear, to be reasonable, and I will
get up and see what it is.'

"'But don't leave me, and I will try to be good,' I exclaimed, jumping
out of bed at the same moment that she did, and clinging to her as she
moved. 'Oh, Mary, don't you think perhaps we'd better go back to bed and
put our fingers in our ears, and by morning it wouldn't seem anything.'

"'And fancy ever after that there had been something mysterious, when
perhaps it is something quite simple,' said Mary. 'No, I shouldn't like
that at all. Of course I won't do anything rash, but I would like to find
out.'

"'The fire, fortunately, was not yet quite out. Mary lighted one of the
candles with a bit of paper from a spark which she managed to coax into a
flame. The noise had, in the meantime, subsided, but just as we had got
the candle lighted, it began again.

"'Now,' said Mary, 'you stay here, Laura, and I'll go into the next room
and listen at the passage door.' She spoke so decidedly that I obeyed in
trembling. Mary armed herself with the poker, and, unlocking our door,
went into the tapestry room, first lighting the second candle, which she
left with me. She crossed the room to the door as she had said. _I_
thought it was to listen; in reality her object was to endeavour to turn
the key in the lock of the tapestry room door, which she had _not_ been
able to do the night before, for once the door was shut the key would not
move, and she had been obliged to content herself with the insecure hold
of the hook and staple. Now it had struck her that by inserting the poker
in the handle of the key she might succeed in turning it, and thus
provide ourselves with a double defence. For if the intruder--dog, cat,
whatever it was--burst the outer door and got into the tapestry room, my
fears, she told me afterwards, would, she felt sure, have become
uncontrollable. It was a brave thing to do--was it not? She deserved to
succeed, and she did. With the poker's help she managed to turn the key,
and then with a sigh of relief she stood still for a