Part 22 (1/2)

”Marty, wont you say those verses you said at our last band meeting?”

”I'll say them if the ladies would like to hear them,” said Marty, who was not at all timid, and knew the verses very thoroughly, having recited them at the anniversary of her own band.

The ladies desired very much to hear them, and, taking her stand at one end of the room, she repeated very nicely those well-known lines beginning,

”An aged woman, poor and weak, She heard the mission teacher speak; The slowly-rolling tears came down Upon her withered features brown: 'What blessed news from yon far sh.o.r.e!

Would I had heard it long before!'”

”How touching that is!” said one of the hotel ladies, and Mrs. Sims was seen to wipe her eyes with the pillow-slip she was seaming.

”Mrs. Thurston,” said Miss f.a.n.n.y, who saw that a good start on a foreign missionary meeting had been made, and was not willing to let the opportunity be lost, ”when you were in India did you meet many persons who were anxious to hear the gospel, or were they mainly indifferent?”

In replying to this question Mrs. Thurston told many interesting things that had come under her observation, and this led to further questions from others, so they had quite a long talk on missionary work both in India and other countries. Finally one of the boarders asked,

”Well, do you think the world ever will be converted to Christianity?”

”I know it will,” replied Mrs. Thurston; and she quoted, ”All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all kindreds of the nations shall wors.h.i.+p before thee.”

f.a.n.n.y. ”For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to G.o.d.”

DORA. ”The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

RUTH. ”He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”

”Dora, Dora,” said Miss f.a.n.n.y, with an imperative little gesture, ”'Jesus shall reign'”--

Miss Dora obediently began to sing,

”Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Does his successive journeys run,”

and was at once joined by the others.

”Now, dear friends,” said Mrs. Thurston, when the hymn was finished, ”upon this, the only occasion we are all likely to be together, shall we not unite in asking G.o.d to hasten the coming of this glorious time, and ask for his blessing on our humble attempts to work in this cause?”

Work was dropped and every head bowed, as Mrs. Thurston uttered fervent words of prayer that the Lord would fill all their hearts with love for missions, and that he would permit them to do something towards helping in the work. She prayed especially for the children who were engaged in missionary work, and asked that they might have grace given them to devote their whole lives to the service of G.o.d.

”Well,” said Mrs. Clarkson, as she was leaving, ”this has been a right down pleasant meeting, and I think the last part was just about the best.”

CHAPTER XIX.

THE GARDEN MISSIONARY MEETING.

Two or three days afterwards Miss f.a.n.n.y, with one of her young friends, came up to tell the farmhouse people that the box had gone. She said that Mr. Sims had given them a box, and had also kindly attended to sending it off.

The day after the meeting, when Hiram went down to the postoffice, Marty and Evaline had each sent by him a book for the missionary children, and Miss f.a.n.n.y said that this prompted some of the children at the hotel to send books.

During the remainder of the summer there was frequent intercourse between the hotel and the farmhouse, and the ”mission workers,”

particularly, learned to love each other very much. Marty felt very proud to be numbered among these workers, though she was only a ”twig.”

She said,