"Well, if you do, you're the first one ever I saw that did." "Oh, Nancy!" said Ellen, — "your grandma?" "Well, she does, I believe," said Nancy; "for she's always at it; but all the rest of the folks that ever I saw are happy to get it out of their hands, _I_ know. They think they must read a little, and so they do, and they are too glad if something happens to break 'em off. You needn't tell _me_ — I've seen 'em." "I wish _you_ loved it, Nancy," said Ellen. "Well, what do you love it for? Come, let's hear; maybe you'll convert me." "I love it for a great many reasons," said Ellen, who had some difficulty in speaking of what she felt Nancy could not understand. "Well — I ain't any wiser yet." "I like to read it because I want to go to heaven, and it tells me how." "But what's the use?" said Nancy — "you ain't going to die yet — you are too young — you've time enough." "Oh, Nancy! — little John Dolan, and Eleanor Parsons, and Mary Huff — all younger than you and I; how can you say so?" "Well," said Nancy — "at any rate, that ain't reading it because you love it — it's because you must, like other folks." "That's only one of my reasons," said Ellen, hesitating, and speaking gravely; — "I like to read about the Saviour, and what he has done for me, and what a friend he will be to me, and how he forgives me. I had rather have the Bible, Nancy, than all the other books in the world." "That ain't saying much," said Nancy — "but how come you to be so sure you are forgiven?" "Because the Bible says, 'He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed,' and I believe in him — and that he will not cast out any one that comes to him, and I have come to him — and that he loves those that love him, and I love him. If it did not speak so very plainly, I should be afraid, but it makes me happy to read such verses as these. I wish you knew, Nancy, how happy it makes me." This profession of faith was not spoken without starting tears. Nancy made no reply. As Miss Fortune had foretold, plenty of people came to the house with proffers of service. Nancy's being there made it easy for Ellen to get rid of them all. Many were the marvels that Miss Fortune should trust her house to "two girls like that," and many the guesses that she would rue it when she got up again. People were wrong. Things went on very steadily, and in an orderly manner; and Nancy kept the peace as she would have done in few houses. Bold and insolent as she sometimes was to others, she regarded Ellen with a mixed notion of respect and protection, which led her at once to shun doing anything that would grieve her, and to thrust her aside from every heavy or difficult job, taking the brunt herself. Nancy might well do this, for she was at least twice as strong as Ellen; but she would not have done it for everybody.