“Oh,” she replied, as the tears filled her eyes again, “I have been crying to think how wicked I am.”

“Well-a-day!” said the old woman, looking rather droll; “it’s very strange such a young creature as you should come down here to weep on account of great wickedness.  You don’t look much like a Salem witch, or a runaway from the house of correction.”

Annie could not help laughing at such an idea; but as the smile passed away, the troubled waters of her heart seemed to burst forth in a flood, and she wept violently.

“Ah,” said the old woman, shaking her head sorrowfully:  “I ought not to have spoken thus; I see how it is.  Poor lamb! she hears the voice of the Shepherd calling her, but she is bewildered and knows not the way to the fold; and may the Lord Jesus look upon me, as he did upon his sinful servant Peter when he denied him, if I fail to point out to this dear child the path wherein he himself has taught me to tread.”

She sat down beside Annie and laid her arm gently around her.  “There’s a dear girl,” said she, raising her head, and putting back the locks of moist hair; “listen to me a little while, and I will tell you what will make you happier.”  She took the cool waters of the spring, and bathed her burning forehead, and washed away all traces of dust and tears.  The water had a cooling and soothing effect upon Annie’s troubled brain.

“There now,” said the good dame; “don’t you feel better?”

“Yes,” said Annie, almost cheerfully.

“Well,” she continued, “God’s love is just like this spring; it is full and free to all.  Now don’t you suppose, if you could cleanse and purify your heart from all traces of sin and sorrow in its blessed waters, just as you bathe your face in this spring, that you would feel happier and better.”

“Yes,” said Annie, slowly and thoughtfully, as if a new idea was passing through her mind.

“Well then, I will tell you how.  I have felt just as you do now.  When I was a girl I was a restless, idle creature; useless to others, and a burden to myself.  Of course I was unhappy, miserable.  It was in vain that I went to school with such a discontented mind.  I had a harder lesson to learn than any that my teacher could learn me.  God grant you may not have to learn it in the same way that I did!  I learned it by experience; a sorrowful way that is to learn anything, although it is slow and sure; you may be pretty certain that you never will forget it.  I have found out, by experience, that the only way that we can live and be happy, is by loving and serving others, just as the blessed Jesus did; and if you will try it you will find it so.”

“Oh,” said Annie, “I am a little girl.  What good can I do?  If I was the Lord Jesus, I would go about doing good; then I would cast out devils, and heal the sick, and raise the dead.”