_"'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name._ _"'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.'"_ * * * * * Sister Mary took up her book and went into the house, while the children gathered together on the steps to watch the sun that was now setting. "Lizzie was a wonderfully good little girl, wasn't she," said Jack; "but then she was sick. I never knew any good people that weren't either sick or ugly." "Why, Jack, there's sister Mary, and papa and mamma, and Miss Taylor, and--" "Oh, I mean children. All the children I read about are good, and get ill, and die. I rather think Lizzie would have died if sister Mary had gone on with her story." "It _is_ so in books," said Belle; "they always die." "People would not want to write about them if they lived," said Nannie. "Why not?" said Jack; "I wish some one would write about me." "If they wrote about you," said Belle, "they could call their work, 'A warning to bad boys,' or, 'An ugly boy that wasn't good.'" While they were talking so, Nannie was thinking very intently. "What are you thinking about, Nannie?" said Belle. "I was thinking about what Jack said--that all the good people were either sick or ugly; I don't believe it's true. But if it is true, I was thinking that perhaps it's like what Abraham told the rich man: 'Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.' So I thought that the ones that were sick and ugly here, but loved Jesus, had received all their evil things, and would be well and beautiful there." "Maybe so," said Jack, more thoughtfully than before. Then stooping down and kissing Nannie, he said, "I know one good girl that isn't sick." The sun was just setting, leaving about half its great face to light the world. In Jack's heart the sun was just rising. Nannie's words kept sounding in his ears,--"Perhaps, perhaps they have received in this life their good things;" and those other words, "Therefore he is comforted, and thou art tormented." CHAPTER VII. "THE LAMB IS THE LIGHT THEREOF." "Nannie, Nannie,--where's Nannie?" Jack called one pleasant summer morning. Just then Nannie's voice was heard singing, and she came into the kitchen, where Jack was. "Nannie, father has just gone down to Grannie Burt's, and he wants you to go there too. Mother is going now, and she says you may go with her if you'll make haste."