iss Prudence, as the laugh died away.

"I don't know," hesitatingly. "I thought it meant about people becoming
Christians, and faith and patience and such good things."

"Perhaps your requests are good things, too. But I have thought of
something that will do for a list of things; it is included in this
promise: 'Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them and ye shall have them.' Desire _when_ ye pray! That's the
point."

"Does the time when we desire make any difference?" asked Linnet,
interestedly.

There were some kind of questions that Linnet liked to ask.

"Does it not make all the difference? Suppose we think of something we
want while we are ease-loving, forgetful of duty, selfish, unforgiving,
neither loving God or our neighbor, when we feel far from him, instead of
near him, can we believe that we shall have such a heart's desire as that
would be? Would your desire be according to his will, his unselfish,
loving, forgiving will?"

"No, oh, no," said Linnet, earnestly. "But I do think about father and
mother and Marjorie going to school and--when I am praying."

"Then ask for everything you desire while you are praying; don't be
afraid."

"_Is_ mother troubled about something?"

"Not troubled, really; only perplexed a little over something we have
been planning about; and she is very glad, too."

"I don't like to have her troubled, because her heart hurts her when she
worries. Marjorie don't know that, but she told me. That's one reason--my
strongest reason--for being sorry about going to Boston."

"But your father is with her and he will watch over her."

"But she depends on _me_," pleaded Linnet.

"Marjorie is growing up," said Miss Prudence, hopefully.

"Marjorie! It doesn't seem to me that she will ever grow up; she is such
a little puss, always absent-minded, with a book in her hand. And she
can't mend or sew or even make cake or clear up a room neatly. We spoil
her, mother and I, as much as she spoils her kitten, Pusheen. Did you
know that _pusheen_ is Irish for puss? Mr. Holmes told us. I do believe
he knows everything."

"He comes nearer universal knowledge than the rest of us," said Miss
Prudence, smiling at the girl's eagerness.

"But he's a book himself, a small volume, in fine print, printed in a
language that none of us can read," said Linnet.

"To most people he is," granted Miss Prudence; "but when he was seven I
was ten, I was a backward child and