im for
strength to dispose of it as we ought.

Had Katie thus taken the money which she had found directly to the
Lord, she would soon have understood all her duty concerning it. Her
desire would have been only to do his will, and she would have gone to
sleep as peacefully as a little child who trusts its mother to manage
for it just as she sees to be for the best. But this she did not dare to
do, partly because she had not yet learned to understand how God
"careth" for his children in all little things, and partly because down
at the bottom of her heart she was not quite ready to do his will--that
is, she _hoped_ that it would be right for her to keep the money, and
hoped this so strongly that she could not look fairly on the other side
of the question. Nearly all night--or it seemed so to a little girl who
was generally asleep by the time her head touched the pillow--she lay
tossing from side to side, troubled by a dozen different sides of the
question. And when she did get to sleep it was to dream confused dreams
of thieves being taken to prison, and of being one of them herself.

As soon as it was light, for the long days had come now, the tired
little girl sprang from her bed, and dressed herself, in a very unhappy
frame of mind. She must decide very soon now, and she began to see more
and more clearly that that money did not belong to her, but to the owner
of the vest in which she had found it. To be sure, she could not now
find the original owner, but Mr. Mountjoy certainly owned it, because he
had bought the rags. It was one thing, however, to see this, and quite
another to decide to give up to him who had so much the little that was
so much to her. All the pleasant planning must go with it; all the
things she had desired for her mother and the boys. She was sure she had
not been selfish; it was not for herself she wanted money at all. From
force of habit she opened her Bible and read the first words she saw,
which were these: "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts." And again
the words flashed upon her: "Thou God seest me."

What did God see? Did he see "truth in the inward part" of her heart?
Was she prepared in _all_ her ways to acknowledge him? his right to her
and all that was hers?

Then she knelt down and did what she ought to have done the first
thing--told him, who understands and pities us "like as a father pitieth
his children," all about it, and asked him to forgive, to pity, and to
direct her.