“What do you think?”

“I know it is.  And that is why my prayers do not comfort me, sometimes.  I mean, the short prayers do; but I do want to pray about so many things, and I am really too tired when I go to bed, sometimes I fall asleep when I am not half through.  Mother used to tell Linnet and me that we oughtn’t to talk after we said our prayers, so we used to talk first and put our prayers off until the last thing, and sometimes we were so sleepy we hardly knew what we were saying.”

“This plan of early reading and praying does not interfere with prayer at bedtime, you know; as soon as my head touches the pillow I begin to pray, I think I always fall asleep praying, and my first thought in the morning is prayer.  My dear, our best and freshest, not our lame and blind, belong to God.”

“Yes,” assented Marjorie in a full tone.  “Aunt Prue, O, Aunt Prue what would I do without you to help me.”

“God would find you somebody else; but I’m very glad he found me for you.”

“I’m more than glad,” said Marjorie, enthusiastically.

“It’s a real snow storm,” Miss Prudence went to the window, pushed the curtain aside, and looked out.

“It isn’t as bad as the night that Morris came to me when I was alone.  Mr. Holmes did not come for two days and it was longer than that before father and mother could come.  What a grand time we had housekeeping!  It is time for the Linnet to be in.  I know Morris will come to see us as soon as he can get leave.  Linnet will be glad to go to her pretty little home; the boy on the farm is to be there nights, mother said, and Linnet will not mind through the day.  Mother Rheid, as Linnet says, will run over every day, and Father Rheid, too, I suspect.  They love Linnet.”

“Marjorie, if I hadn’t had you I believe I should have been content with Linnet, she is so loving.”

“And if you hadn’t Prue you would be content with me!” laughed Marjorie, and just then a strong pull at the bell sent it ringing through the house, Marjorie sprang to her feet and Miss Prudence moved towards the door.

“I feel in my bones that it’s somebody,” cried Marjorie, following her into the hall.

“I don’t believe a ghost could give a pull like that,” answered Miss Prudence, turning the big key.

And a ghost certainly never had such laughing blue eyes or such light curls sprinkled with snow and surmounted by a jaunty navy-blue sailor cap, and a ghost never could give such a spring and catch Marjorie in its arms and rub its cold cheeks against her warm ones.

“O, Morris,” Marjorie cried, “it’s like that other night when you came in the snow!  Only I’m not frightened and alone now.  This is such a surprise!  Such a splendid surprise.”

Marjorie was never shy with Morris, her “twin-brother” as she used to call him.

But the next instant she was escaping out of his arms and fleeing back to the fire.  Miss Prudence and Morris followed more decorously.