"Yes, but God's people sometimes get very far away from Him; if this Bob should lead _you_ astray, I'd be sorry I ever heard of him." "I don't feel much afraid," Edward said, speaking this time in a more quiet, less positive tone, "for I never go wrong when I pray often; pray about everything that comes up, you know, and mean what I pray for." "Humph!" said Mr. Minturn; "that's a good idea; I guess you're pretty safe under _that_ rule." "Besides," said Edward, reserving one of his best arguments till the last, "I know somebody who would help Bob ever so much,--Mr. Ray would find him out." Mr. Minturn's eyes grew bright, and he smiled a half sad smile. "Yes," he said, "that's true enough; Ray can't come near anybody without helping him. Well, write to the boy to come on; we'll try him. Has he anything to come with?" "Yes, sir, he says he has money enough to get here." And Edward went away glad, for he had begun to be very willing to have Bob there. CHAPTER XXV. "If ye abide in Me, and My word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Edward got up one morning feeling years older than he had only the morning before,--older and graver, feeling a great responsibility resting on his shoulders; for he was The weary frame, racked with so many pains, was at last at rest. Kitty had written just a line, telling the sad story, but it did not reach him until nearly a week after; and with it came Mr. Holbrook's,--a long letter, full of tender sympathy, telling all about how, in the afternoon of an early spring day, they had laid his father by Johnny's side. Edward read on eagerly, until he came to this sentence: "My dear boy, I have a most precious message for you. I was with him only an hour before he died, and at that time he said to me, 'I want you to tell Tip that God has heard his prayer, and saved his father; and that I shall watch for him to come to heaven, and bring all the rest.' And, Edward, I haven't a shade of doubt but that your father is with his Redeemer; you must let me quote again a verse which I once gave you: 'I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications.'" And at this point the letter dropped from his hand, and Edward shed his first tears for his father. It was curious, the different ways that Mr. Minturn and his son had of expressing sympathy. "Oh," Mr. Minturn said, when he was told, "why in the world didn't they send for you?" "Because, sir, my father died very suddenly, and my mother thought I could not afford to come so far for the funeral." "Afford! as if that would have made any difference. Did they think I would let it cost _you_ anything?" Edward showed Mr. Holbrook's letter to Ray after that; and when it had been read, expressed the feeling which had been much in his heart ever since the news came, and which had been strengthened by Mr. Monturn's words: "I shall always be sorry that I could not have gone to the funeral."