"Then your old grandmother. Can you do nothing to cheer her life in her old age and helplessness? Can't you find some way of giving her pleasure? some way of amusing a long tedious hour now and then?" Ellen looked very grave; in her inmost heart she knew this was a duty she shrank from. "He 'went about doing good.' Keep that in mind. A kind word spoken--a little thing done to smooth the way of one, or lighten the load of another--teaching those who need teaching--entreating those who are walking in the wrong way. Oh, my child, there is work enough!-- 'To serve the present age, My calling to fulfil; O may it all my powers engage To do my Maker's will. Arm me with jealous care, As in Thy sight to live; And oh! thy servant, Lord, prepare A strict account to give.'" "An account of what?" said Ellen. "You know what an account is. If I give Thomas a dollar to spend for me at Carra-carra, I expect he will give me an exact _account_ when he comes back, what he has done with every shilling of it. So must we give an account of what we have done with everything our Lord has committed to our care--our hands, our tongue, our time, our minds, our influence; how much we have honoured Him, how much good we have done to others, how fast and how far we have grown holy and fit for heaven." "It almost frightens me to hear you talk, Miss Alice." "Not _frighten_, dear Ellen--that is not the word; _sober_ we ought to be, mindful to do nothing we shall not wish to remember in the great day of account. Do you recollect how that day is described? Where is your Bible?" She opened at the twentieth chapter of the Revelation. "'And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven flew away; and there was found no place for them. "'And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. "'And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.'" Ellen shivered. "That is dreadful!" she said. "It will be a dreadful day to all but those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life; not dreadful to them, dear Ellen." "But how shall I be sure, dear Alice, that _my_ name is written there? and I can't be happy if I am not sure." "My dear child," said Alice tenderly, as Ellen's anxious face and glistening eyes were raised to hers, "if you love Jesus Christ you may know you are His child, and none shall pluck you out of His hand."