gly upon me that she was reading
the Bible, and that this book was the cause of the great change in her.
A thousand thoughts stirred in my heart. I durst not venture to look in
at the window, lest she should see me, for I had not at all made up my
mind what to do. So I went back a little distance, put on my boots
again, and came into the house as if nothing had happened.

"I was unusually silent that night, and I saw Kate looking aside at me
now and then with a half-frightened glance, as if she was afraid that I
was going to change back to my old unkind ways. I watched her very
narrowly, and she saw it, and was uneasy. The fact was, I wanted to get
at her Bible, if she really had one, and I had not yet the courage to
speak to her about it. She knew how I had talked to her against it, and
made a mock at it, and I couldn't yet humble myself enough to ask for a
sight of it. I noticed, however, that she looked a little anxiously at
me when I turned down the baby's bed-clothes in the cradle to have a
look at him; and as I could see no Bible anywhere about the room, it
darted into my mind that she had hidden it under the clothes. So when
she was gone up into the bedroom, to set things to rights upstairs, I
found the book I was looking for stowed snugly away, and began to read
it as eagerly as if it had been a rich man's will leaving me all his
property."

"You weren't far wrong there, William," broke in Thomas Bradly; "for the
gospel _is_ our heavenly Father's will and testament, making us his
heirs; and it's written with his own hand, and sealed with the blood of
his dear Son. But go on, William."

"I don't doubt but you're right," resumed Foster. "Well, as I read the
little Bible, I was quite astonished, for I saw how utterly ignorant I
had been of its contents and teaching. Ah, yes; it's one thing to know
a few texts, just enough to furnish matter for censure and ridicule, and
quite a different thing to read the very same book with a sincere desire
to learn and understand what it has to tell us. I found it so, I can
assure you. So I learnt from that humble little Bible of Kate's what
all my philosophy and all the philosophy in the world could never teach
me.

"It isn't to the point now, but I'll tell you another time how this
Bible came into Kate's hands; for of course we had not one of our own in
the house. A singular chance I should have called it a short time ago;
but I'm coming more and more to your mi