than I do."

"I like working," answered Ned; "nothing makes me so dull as being idle.
Besides, as grandmother says, people are far more likely to do wrong
when they are not employed. You know the lines in the hymn,--

'For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do,'"

Tom looked down and coloured.

Ned, who had not meant to give him pain by what he said, added, on
observing Tom's confusion--

"I have so many things I like to do when I go home after work, that I
don't deserve praise for not being idle."

"I wish I had anything I liked to do when work is over," returned Tom;
"but I have nothing to do but play, and I soon get tired of that."

"So do I," rejoined Ned. "I like a game of ball or cricket every now and
then as well as anybody; but it is a great waste of time, to say the
least of it, to spend all one's spare hours in play; besides, as you
say, we get tired, and do not enjoy play if we have too much of it."

"What do you do of an evening, that is so pleasant?" inquired Tom.

"Why I keep our little garden in order;--that takes up a good deal of
time; and I write a copy, and do a sum or two, and read the Bible to
grandmother."

"I should like that very well," observed Tom, "all except reading the
Bible."

"Oh, do not say so!" exclaimed Ned; "surely you do not mean it."

"I dare say," rejoined Tom, "that I should like the Bible well enough if
I could understand it; but it's so hard! _You_ understand it all, I
suppose?"

"Oh, dear no! that I do not; but grandmother sometimes explains what is
hard, and tells me a great many pleasing things about the manners of the
country where our Saviour and his Apostles lived. I never am happier
than when I read to her, and she talks to me about what I have read."

"Well," said Tom, "mother hears me read a chapter now and then, but she
always seems to think it a trouble; and so I read as fast as I can, to
get it the sooner over. Father commonly says, he's too tired to listen."

Ned said no more on the subject then; but when they had both done work,
he asked Tom if he would like to walk home with him, and look at his
garden.

Tom hesitated at first; there seemed to be something in the idea that
made him uncomfortable. But he had been gradually growing fond of Ned,
and Ned's account of the pleasures and comfort of his home had made him
wish to go there; so he told his companion that he would go with him.

Ned's grandmother received the two b