hat most folks do?"

"Yes. What then?"

"Then it wouldn't be just easy to get along with it, I should think."

"What then?"

"Well!" said Rupert,--"how are you going to live in the world, and not
do as the world do?"

"Then you _have_ studied the Bible a little?"

"No, fact, I haven't," said Rupert. "But I've heard folks talk now and
again; and that's what I think about it."

"Suppose it is difficult?" said Dolly. "But it is really not difficult,
if one is a true servant of God and not only make-believe. Suppose it
were difficult, though. Do you remember what Christ said of the two
ways, serving Him and not serving Him?"

Rupert shook his head.

"Have you got a Bible of your own?"

"No," said Rupert. "That's an article I never owned yet. I've always
wanted other things more, you see."

"And I would rather want everything else in the world," said Dolly. "I
mean, I would rather be without everything else."

"Surely!" said Rupert.

"Because I am a servant of Christ, you see. Now that is what I want you
to be. And as to the question of ease or difficulty--this is what I was
going to repeat to you. Jesus said, that those who hear and obey Him
are like a house planted on a rock; fixed and firm; a house that when
the storms come and the winds blow, is never so much as shaken. But
those who do not obey Him are like a house built on the sand. When the
storms blow and the winds beat, it will fall terribly and all to ruins.
It seems to me, Mr. Babbage, that _that_ is harder than the other."

"Suppose the storms do not come?" said Rupert.

"I guess they come to most people," said Dolly soberly. "But the Lord
did not mean these storms merely. I don't know whether He meant them at
all. He meant the time by and by.--Come, we must go home," said Dolly,
beginning to go forward again. "I wish you would be a servant of
Christ, Mr. Babbage!"

"Why?"

"Oh, because all that is sure and strong and safe and happy is on that
side," said Dolly, speaking eagerly. "All that is noble and true and
good. You are sure of nothing if you are not a Christian, Mr. Babbage;
you are not sure even of yourself. Temptation may whirl you, you don't
know where, and before you know it and before you can help it. And when
the storms come, those storms--your house will--go down--in the
sands"---- And to Rupert's enormous astonishment, Dolly's voice broke
here, and for a second she stood still, drawing long sobs; then she
lifted her head with