inding. Also, she did not plan out
any more ways of spending the money.

Katie was so silent all teatime that her brothers continually rallied
her upon her preoccupation, and her mother, fearing she must be sick,
sent her to bed very early. To this the little girl did not object, as
she wanted to be alone to think over the question that was so
perplexing her brain.

Before getting into bed, our young friend opened her drawer, took out
the box, gazed lovingly at the bill for a time, then put it away, and
knelt to say her evening prayer. What was the matter to-night? For
almost the first time since she had known what prayer really was, she
could not pray. Her thoughts would not be controlled; they kept
wandering away to the finding of that bill. She wondered whether any one
had seen her find it, what use she should put it to, and if it were
really hers after all. She knew it was wrong to think of other things at
such a solemn moment, and felt guilty and condemned. Her conscience
troubled her; it seemed as though God were angry with her. So far the
finding of the money had not been a very happy event for its finder. It
often happens that secular things, the things we are interested in in
our daily lives, will come in between us and our prayers, and we cannot
get rid of them. Young Christians especially are greatly troubled in
this way, and have many weary fights in the attempt to control their
thoughts. They have an idea that prayer is such a sacred thing, and God
is so holy, that they must only talk to him about religion, and use
pretty much the same words which they hear in church, and when they
cannot do this, they either fall into the habit of _saying_ such words
formally without in the least thinking of their meaning, or else they
are wretched and self-condemned because of what are called "distractions
in prayer." But there is a more excellent way, even to take all the
things that really interest us directly to "our Father which art in
heaven," and tell him all about them. He encourages us to do so when he
says, "casting _all_ your care upon him," and "in everything by prayer
and supplication make your requests known unto God." If we are really
his children we may be sure that nothing is too small to interest him
which _rightfully_ interests us, and if it is not a right interest there
is no surer way of finding that out, and gaining the victory over it,
than by bringing it to the light of his Holy Spirit and asking h