“Oh yes, Grandma, she often tells us God alone can bless our learning, and make it really useful to us, and that therefore we should ask Him for the teaching of His Holy Spirit many times a day.”

“And does my Frank attend to this advice?”

“Sometimes I do, and then I feel quite light and happy like; but when I grow careless, and forget it, I am sure to get into some scrape or other soon.  So then, I am glad enough to go back to my old ways, and ask that God would help me in the future.”

“A safe and blessed practice, dear, and one that will preserve you from all dangers.  Prayer is our strength, our safety; and when we ask the aid of God with all our hearts, we shall never ask in vain, you may be sure.”

After a little pause, Frank broke into a peal of merry laughter.

“What is it that amuses you so much?” said Mrs. Grey.

“Why, Grandma, I was thinking,” said he, colouring, and looking shy, “what an enormous-looking fellow I should be, if I were like ’The Crystal Palace.’”

“Yes; then you would be 1800 feet in length, and 450 feet in breadth, and noble trees would be sheltered by your arms, and you would be a kind of modern Atlas, that the fables tell us could support the globe.”

“I would rather be a little boy, than anything made of bricks and mortar, though,” said Frank, complacently.

“But there is no brick, or stone, or mortar, in the whole;—­but all is iron, wood, and glass—­and the vast building is composed of very many parts, each only eight feet square, but so great in number, that it is longer than any street you know, for it covers 18 acres of ground, which is nine times larger than your garden at the school, and all is supported upon iron pillars of the same size and pattern.  Yet this immense erection is all formed of complete and distinct parts, not half as large as the room we are now sitting in.  Let this teach you, that mere size is not necessary to completeness; but that a number of beautiful and little parts, put well together, form a noble, grand, and most effective whole.”

“I see, Grandma,” said Frank, smiling archly; “so you mean, that though I am but very little, and all that, yet I may be complete and useful too.”

“You understand me thoroughly, my dear; for were any of these parts defective, the whole would be incomplete, and we might never have the pleasure of walking for miles, on a wet day, under the cover of ’The Crystal Palace,’ as I hope we shall do during the next Christmas holidays.  So you see, that small things are of great importance, after all.”

“I thought it was to be a great bazaar, and not a garden, Grandmama,” said Frank.

“And you are right, for in the first instance it is destined to receive specimens of the industry of the whole world and a novel and a grand idea it is,—­for which we have to thank Prince Albert, who is not only almost the highest person in the land, but also one of the wisest and the best; and often should we thank God for giving us so good a Queen and Prince, so very different to many that you read about in history.”