ss among the Hindoos. There was a "family
Bible" in the house to be sure, but the only use to which it had ever
been applied, was that of registering the births of the family, and the
testimony it bore proved so exceedingly disagreeable to the Misses
Fairland, that as Rosa has informed us, they took the liberty one day of
erasing it.

Agnes told the children to ask their papa if they might each have a
Bible of their own, to which he consented, and when the Bibles were
brought home, the exclamations of derision from the Misses Fairland,
were loud and long.

"A missionary in disguise!" they exclaimed; "a saint in the form of a
governess; come to convert us all, and the first thing is an importation
of Bibles!" and many were the sneering and sarcastic remarks and
allusions which came to the ears of Agnes, but she kept on her way quiet
and undisturbed. Agnes was perfectly astonished to find how utterly
unacquainted these children were with the contents of the Bible. It was
all new to them; and after she had read to them every morning, she would
gather them around her, and tell them in simple language the sweet
stories from the Bible, while they listened, the younger ones with their
bright, wide-open eyes fixed upon her face, as if they could not lose a
word; and even poor Tiney loved to lay her head in Agnes' lap, and hear
of Him who ever sympathised with the sick and suffering.

It was very strange, and very interesting to Agnes, to hear the remarks
these children made, and the many questions they would ask on subjects
so new to them; and as they had not yet learned to look at the character
of God, as revealed in his Son, with the reverence which better
instructed children feel, they often spoke of Him as they would of any
good man of whom they might hear, and in a way which would seem too
irreverential, were I to tell you all they said.

Once when Agnes had been telling them of some of the miracles of our
Saviour, in curing the sick, and giving sight to the blind, and hearing
to the deaf, Rosa with her bright black eyes fixed intently on her face,
said with the utmost earnestness:

"Why, He was real _good_, wasn't He?"

"Yes," said Agnes, "always good and kind, and always ready to help the
sick and suffering."

"He could cure _anybody_, couldn't He?" continued Rosa.

"Yes; He was _all-powerful_," answered Agnes.

"Could He cure Tiney?" asked Jessie.

"Yes; if Tiney had lived when Christ was on earth, or if He