"O," said she, "I should so want him to be good first! If he should not be a good man, I would not have him get learning to do harm with it, and make himself more miserable hereafter." The little gate, with its chain and ball, swung to at this moment, and a woman and girl came up the walk. It was Mrs. Ford, who used to be your dress-maker, and her daughter Janette, now about thirteen. It was a farewell call from Janette, who was going to the neighborhood of Philadelphia, into a coach-lace manufactory. "So Janette is going to leave us, to-morrow, Mrs. Ford?" said your mother. "Yes, madam, and I feel sorely about it; so young, and such a way off, and all strangers except the foreman, who spoke to me about her coming! O, sir," said she, changing her undertone, and turning to me, "what should we do without that promise, 'I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee'?" I looked at Mr. and Mrs. B., and we all smiled, while I said: "Now we have got the second part of the 'Abrahamic covenant.' So now we have the whole of it. Mrs. Ford, when you came in, we were talking about baptizing children, and about the 'Abrahamic covenant.' What do you understand by that covenant?" "I understand by it, sir," said she, slowly gathering her words into proper order; "why, I think I understand by it, that God promises to be a God to a believer's child, as he was in such a wonderful way to Abraham's people." _Pastor._ Well, that is the substance of one part of it, at least. Did you know, Mrs. Ford, that when you came in we were just entering Mrs. Benson's son at college? _Mrs. Ford._ Not this Mrs. Benson, of course. Whom do you mean, sir? _Pastor._ This Mrs. Benson;--her little son. _Mrs. Ford._ O, I understand! Well, you will send him to P., I suppose, it is so near. "We had not fixed on the college," said Mrs. Benson, with a laugh. "Janette," said I, "how do you like the thought of going off so far from us all?" Janette pulled the ends of her plain cotton gloves, and her heart was full, so that she could not speak for a moment. I was sorry that I had asked the question, and therefore added: "You will not go where God cannot take care of you and bless you the same as at home, will you, dear?" She lifted her white apron to her eyes, while Mrs. Ford said for her: "I tell Janette that I gave her up to God in baptism; and when her father lay sick, he said, 'That child was given to God in his house; I leave her destitute, and with nothing but her hands, but I leave her to a covenant-keeping God.'"