Chapter XXV: How to Find

"WELL, I can't find it!" said Nancy in rather an exasperated tone.

"I've been looking and peeping about for this twenty minutes, and I can't find it!"

"What is it?" asked Tom lazily, from his book and his corner of the sofa.

"Why, a shilling! I was putting some change into my purse, and it rolled from under my very fingers!"

"Perhaps you've made a mistake?"

"No; but I'm sure I haven't. I have only half-a-crown in the world, and that was in three sixpences and a shilling; and the shilling is gone! Besides, I heard it drop and roll away."

"We'll look after tea," yawned Tom.

But Nancy was not satisfied with that, and went on groping about in all the likely corners, almost ready to cry at her brother's lack of sympathy, and at her own want of success.

Mary was preparing the tea busily, and did not seem to be taking much notice; but presently she said in her gentle voice, "Perhaps you have not light enough?" and while Nancy looked up with relief at someone being interested in her trouble, Mary quietly slipped out of the room.

Poor little Nancy sat down on the hearth-rug, and almost gave up her shilling; she had looked everywhere, she was certain.

Then a light came in at the door, and there was Mary with a small lamp in her hand.

"Try this," she said, holding it out so that its light sent a beam into the dark recesses round the fireplace.

Nancy started up with fresh energy, and then there was a sudden exclamation.

"Why, Mary—!"

"Have you found it?" asked Mary joyfully.

"Yes; but I'd looked there heaps of times! It was just by the scuttle—"

"The light shone on it, I expect," said Mary, "and then you saw it!"

Tom looked up in his sister's face. "A spiritual lesson, Moll?" he asked, with a smile at her tone.

"I thought so," she answered, "for, do you know, it exactly matched a very curious experience I had a day or so ago. I was in darkness about something, and could not at all find out what God meant me to do. I searched in the corner of experience, and in the corner of expediency, and in another of wishes, and in another of obstacles; when suddenly it flashed across me that light was what I wanted—not so much searching!"

"And then I thought of fetching the Lamp of God's Word; and as I turned over the pages, the Light shone on my difficulty, and I could see the way out of it, shining as bright as Nancy's shilling in the dark corner!"

"And that was?" asked Tom, while Nancy still held her recovered shilling in her hand, and looked earnestly at her sister.

"'Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass,'" quoted Mary.

"Nice!" said Nancy heartily.

"So I took the lesson to my heart, dears," added Mary gently, "that when we are in a difficulty, it is very often because we have not enough light; and that light is to be found in the Word of God, which is there for anyone who seeks!"