'the Lord is good; a stronghold in the day of
trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in Him?'"

"Oh yes," I said, looking up at her in surprise. "How did you know?"

For all answer, Miss Cardigan folded her two arms tight about me and
kissed me with earnest good will.

"But they told me something else," I said, struggling to command
myself;--"they told me that I had _not_ 'trusted in Him.'"

"Ah, my bairn!" she said. "But the Lord is good."

There was so much both of understanding and sympathy in her tones, that
I had a great deal of trouble to control myself. I felt unspeakably
happy too, that I had found a friend that could understand. I was
silent, and Miss Cardigan looked at me.

"Is it all right, noo?" she asked.

"Except _me_,--" I said with my eyes swimming.

"Ah, well!" she said. "You've seen the sky all black and covered with
the thick clouds--that's like our sins: but, 'I have blotted out as a
thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.' You know how
it is when the wind comes and clears the clouds all off, and you can
look up through the blue, till it seems as if your eye would win into
heaven itself. Keep the sky clear, my darling, so that you can always
see up straight to God, with never the fleck of a cloud between. But
do you ken what will clear the clouds away?"

And I looked up now with a smile and answered, "'The precious blood of
Christ'"--for the two texts had been close together in one of the
pages of my little book not long before.

Miss Cardigan clapped her hands together softly and laughed. "Ye've
got it!" she said. "Ye have gotten the pearl of great price. And where
did ye find it, my dear?"

"I had a friend, that taught me in a Sunday-school, four years ago,--"
I said.

"Ah, there weren't so many Sunday-schools in my day," said Miss
Cardigan. "And ye have found, maybe, that this other sort of a school,
that ye have gotten to now, isn't helpful altogether? Is it a rough
road, my bairn?"

"It is my own fault," I said, looking at her gratefully. The tender
voice went right into my heart.

"Well, noo, ye'll just stop and have tea with me here; and whenever
the way is rough, ye'll come over to my flowers and rest yourself. And
rest me too; it does me a world o' good to see a young face. So take
off your coat, my dear, and let us sit down and be comfortable."

I was afraid at first that I could not; I had no liberty to be absent
at tea-time. But Miss Cardigan assured m