ition upon Mr.
Eberstein's knee now.
"Yes; the men that 'Plutarch's Lives' tell about. Whom do you like
best?"
Dolly pondered, and then averred that she liked one for one thing and
another for another. There ensued a lively discussion between her and
Mr. Eberstein, in the course of which Dolly certainly brought to view
some power of discrimination and an unbiassed original judgment; at the
same time her manner retained the delicate quiet which characterised
all that belonged to her. She held her own over against Mr. Eberstein,
but she held it with an exquisite poise of ladylike good breeding; and
Mr. Eberstein was charmed with her. The talk lasted until it was broken
up by Mrs. Eberstein, who declared Dolly must go to rest.
She went up herself with the child, and attended to her little
arrangements; helped her undress; and when Dolly was fairly in bed,
stood still looking at the bright little head on the pillow, thinking
that the brown eyes were very wide open for the circumstances.
"Are you very tired, darling?" she asked.
"I don't know," said Dolly. "I guess not very."
"Sleepy?"
"No, I am not sleepy yet. I am wide awake."
"Do you ever lie awake, after you have gone to bed?"
"Not often. Sometimes."
"What makes you do it?"
"I don't know. I get thinking sometimes."
"About what can such a midget as you get thinking?"
Dolly's face wrinkled up a little in amusement at this question. "I see
a great many things to think about," she answered.
"It's too soon for you to begin that," said Mrs. Eberstein, shaking her
head. Then she dropped down on her knees by the bedside, so as to bring
her face nearer the child's.
"Dolly, have you said your prayers?" she asked softly.
The brown eyes seemed to lift their lids a little wider at that. "What
do you mean, Aunt Harry?" she replied.
"Do you never pray to the Lord Jesus before you go to sleep?"
"I don't do it ever. I don't know anything about it."
The thrill that went over Mrs. Eberstein at this happily the little one
did not know. She went on very quietly in manner.
"Don't you know what prayer is?"
"It is what people do in church, isn't it?"
"What is it that people do in church?"
"I do not know," said Dolly. "I never thought about it."
"It is what you do whenever you ask your father or mother for anything.
Only that is prayer to your father or mother. This I mean is prayer to
God."
"We don't call it prayer, asking them anything,
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