The dame went away in the hopes that Maiden May had made a favourable impression on the ladies. "The elder is a little stiff and won't win the child's heart like the blind lady; but she is kind and may be thinks more than her sister," she said to herself. "She won't spoil the child or set her up too much--that's a good thing, or maybe she might not like coming back to us and putting up with our ways, and that would vex Adam sorely." The little girl spent a very happy day with the kind ladies. She led Miss Mary as she had proposed about the garden, and was as entertaining to the blind lady as on the previous day, while she gained a considerable amount of information tending to expand her young mind. Miss Jane commenced giving her the course of instruction she had contemplated, and Maiden May proved herself a willing and apt pupil. When invited to come to dinner, Miss Jane was pleased to see her stand up with her hands before her, ready to repeat the grace which she herself uttered. "Father always prays before and after meals though he does not say the same words; but I think God does not care about the words so much as what comes out of the heart. Oh, He is very very kind, I always thank Him for what He gives me. If He had not taken care of me, I should have been washed away in the sea with my poor ayah and all the people on board the ship." "And you love God my little maiden," asked Miss Pemberton. "Oh, yes, how could I not when He has given us His dear Son, and with Him all things else which we can want to make us happy." "The child has been well taught by the good fish wife," observed Miss Mary aside to her sister. "She has set us an example which we must be careful to follow." "Yes, indeed," said Miss Jane, "we can better give her lady-like notions and habits than the good old woman could have done, but she has acted faithfully in imparting that knowledge which is above all price." It is true May did several things at table not in accordance with the customs of polite society, but Miss Jane refrained from saying anything for fear of intimidating the little girl. "You will observe, May, how I behave at table, and you will try, I am sure, to do as I do," she said quietly. May nodded, and after this so narrowly watched all her movements that Miss Jane began almost to wish that she had not made the remark. If Miss Jane helped herself to salt so did Maiden May, when she drank the little girl lifted her small tumbler to her lips, her knife and fork was held exactly in the same way she saw Miss Jane doing, or held daintily in her tiny hand while Susan took her plate for some more chicken. "Our young friend will prove an apt scholar, I suspect," observed Miss Jane, to her sister. "I will tell you why I think so by and bye." After dinner Miss Jane gave May her first writing lesson. She had never before held a pen in her hand, and her attempts to make pot-hooks and hangers, and even straight lines were not very successful.