he left the room in response to a
call from Hugh, who was in the hall.

Jessie replaced the book, and sighed as she picked up the worsteds from
the floor, to think that she had done nothing to the slippers that
morning. However, as there was yet over half an hour to spare before
dinner, and as she could go on with her work for the present, without the
brown worsted, she began plying her needle with right good will.

Presently Uncle Morris came in. He had been out all the morning. Seeing
his niece so busy, he smiled, and said:

"Busy as the bee, eh, Jessie? Well, it's the working bee that makes the
honey. Guess the little wizard has lost heart now he has found out that my
little puss has a strong will to do right, and a strong Friend to help
her."

Jessie blushed and sighed. She was in what young Duncan would call a
"tight place." She knew that her uncle was mistaken; that she did not
deserve his praise, that by being silent she should, of her own accord,
confirm his mistake and thereby deceive him. And yet, it was hard to
confess her fault, under the circumstances. "What could Jessie do?"

At first she was silent. Her uncle perceiving by her manner that something
puzzled and pained her, turned to his chair, and without saying another
word took up the morning's newspaper and began reading.

The longer Jessie kept up his false impression, the worse she felt. Very
soon, however, the voice of the Good Spirit within her gained the victory,
and throwing the slipper into the basket, she rose, saying to herself, "I
will tell him all about it."

Going to her uncle's side, she threw an arm round his neck, gently drew
his head towards her and kissed him. Then she smiled through a mist of
tears, and said:

"Uncle, the little wizard hasn't left Glen Morris, yet."

"Hasn't he?" replied her uncle. "Why, I thought you pricked him so sorely
with your quilt needle that he had run off to Greenland, or to some other
distant land to escape your little ladyship's anger, or to woo Miss
Perseverance to be his bride."

"I wish he had," sighed Jessie; "but I fear he never will go. I wish he
didn't like Glen Morris so well."

Then the little girl told her uncle how Guy's book had lured her into the
wizard's power.

"Never mind, my child," said Uncle Morris, patting her head as he spoke,
"never mind. Never give up. Attack him again with your tiny spear. Resolve
that you will yet conquer him, as little David did big Goliath, in the
n