Chapter II: Changed

SO, helped by the kind neighbour, Mary brought the wood into the shed, and, carrying a few sticks in her hand, she entered the cottage once more.

Had a change come over her own heart only, or was there something different in her mother's too?

Was it only the unexpected bright blaze of the firelight that made Mary's blue eyes shine?

"See, Mary! Dick brought home this wood all of his own accord, and I've got nice and warm; and I've made a cup of tea ready against you came in. Why, child, how pale you look!"

Mary's blue eyes, which had been shining in the firelight, were shining in tears now, the solicitude was so unexpected—and so sweet.

"Thank you, mother," she said gratefully; "but where is Dick?"

"Dick's gone out again to fetch in some more. Come right along and have a cup of this steaming tea. It will put some life into you, child!"

Mary took the tea, and stood by the fire warming herself and looking down on her mother.

"Are you better, then, mother?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know as I am, my dear. But while you were out in the forest, and I sat thinkin' by those few embers, I kind of dreamed that I heard someone a-knockin' at the door. It was different from our neighbour's knock, and somehow I knew it wasn't her; and I sez, 'Come in, Lord,' afore I thought as this ain't no place to ask Him into."

Mary looked up startled, while her mother went on—

"And He said some words like these, which it seems to me as I've heard long ago, 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me."

"How nice!" whispered Mary. Had her mother seen a vision of Jesus too? That Saviour who wept with the sorrowful, would He come in and sup with those who welcomed Him?

She bent and kissed her mother's forehead.

"So I seemed to wake from my dream, and I said, 'Lord Jesus, if you are knocking at my heart, I'm willing.'"

Mary's eyes shone again.

"I have not thought of these things as much as I ought," she went on musingly, "but there was a time when I did. Perhaps this illness, Mary, has been sent to lead me back to Him. If so, I'm glad on it!"

That night when Mary went to bed, she knelt down in the moonlight and looked up to her pitiful Saviour, and thanked Him for letting her feel His sympathy, and for bearing her through so wonderfully.

When she came down the next morning, Dick had already lighted the fire and set on the kettle.

"Why, Dick!" she exclaimed.

"Do you like it?" smiled her brother.

"Oh, Dick, you can't think how a little thing is a help. Thank you so much."

So they set about getting the breakfast together, and it took half the time, of course, to Mary's great satisfaction.

They did all very quietly so as not to wake their mother in the next room. And when they sat down, Mary whispered, "Do you know, Dick, who it was, I think, that told you to help me?"

Dick shook his head. "Nobody did," he said, stuffing a piece of bread into his mouth.

"Ah, but I know better," said Mary, smiling; "and, Dick, I like to tell you, because He'll help you too—it was Jesus our Saviour, Dick!"

IN THE PRISON.

YOU have most of you heard the story of Joseph: how his jealous brothers sold him for a slave, and how he was carried away from his loving father to a country, a long way off, called Egypt.

Yes, you smile and say you have heard all about Joseph: how God was with him and made him ruler over the land, and how his father and his brothers all came down to Egypt, and how he forgave his brothers and gave them nice fields for their flocks, and made them as happy as ever he could.

But there is one thing which I wonder whether you have ever heard about Joseph.

You ask what that can be, because you have read the history in Genesis so many times.

This picture tells you what it is.

In the 105th Psalm and the 17th and 18th verses we read: "He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron."

Now, I think this verse is a great comfort to people who are in any trouble.

Perhaps you ask—Why? Because it tells me that though it was hundreds of years after when God told David to write that psalm, yet "God" had not forgotten that His faithful Joseph had been laid in iron and had his feet hurt with fetters.

So it seems to me that there are numbers of places in the Bible which show us that God is watching over us all at all times; that whether our troubles are very great or very small, He notices them, and remembers them, and sends us deliverance out of them.

Joseph was cast into prison and bound by his angry master, though he had done nothing wrong, yet God soon delivered him from the chains and fetters.

We read that the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and made the keeper of the prison kind to Joseph, so that he began to trust him and gave him charge of the other prisoners, and whatever Joseph thought best to be done, they did.

Joseph was in the prison for quite two years, but God was watching over him, and at the end of that time caused Pharaoh the king to have a wonderful dream; and he sent for Joseph to explain it to him.

Perhaps you remember how Joseph had told Pharaoh's butler and baker the meanings of their dreams when they were in the prison with him? At any rate, when Pharaoh had his dream, the chief butler suddenly remembered how he had promised when he was set free to speak to the king about Joseph.

So he asked Pharaoh to send for him, which he did. And God told Joseph all about the dream, and Pharaoh was so astonished and delighted that he released Joseph from prison, and made him a great ruler in the land of Egypt.

See what it is to be "God's" servant!

HIRA'S QUEST.