“I will obey God,” said Bessie quietly; and she began at once to prepare to leave home.

When all was ready and the morning of departure had come, Mr. Worthington went out to prepare to take his daughter to the train.  He had been very silent all the morning, but Bessie’s heart was so full that she had taken little notice of his behavior.  Oh, how she longed for his consent for her to return!  Her mother gave her every encouraging word possible.  At last they looked out and saw that the horse was ready.  As Bessie picked up her last bundle, the door opened, and her father, stepping in quickly, caught her in his arms.  “O my child,” he sobbed, “will you forgive me and come back as soon as the Lord will let you?  I didn’t mean what I said; but it is so hard to give you up.  If you need anything, write to me at once and let me know about it, won’t you?” and he tenderly kissed her.  Bessie’s heart was filled with joy, and she said that he could expect her home just as soon as the Lord would let her come.

“Read 1 Cor. 10:13 and Jas. 1:12 just as soon as you have time, dear,” whispered Mrs. Worthington in her daughter’s ear as she kissed her again before she jumped into the buggy beside her father.  Then they drove away from the home and the mother that were so dear to Bessie’s heart.

Very few words were spoken on the way to town, and after a long ride Bessie found herself on the train.  It all seemed like a terrible dream; but there was a sweet peace and quietness in her soul, and her father’s loving words rang again and again in her ears.

CHAPTER XXIV.

REVERIE.

In the days that followed Bessie’s arrival at the Trumpet office, she found many ways in which she could help spread the gospel.  She found, too, that she could preach in a way that was not at all distasteful to her; for she could set up many lines of type to be used in printing the gospel message in the Trumpet, which was carrying light and truth into many homes and preaching to hungry souls.  But oh, how often she thought of the dear ones at home and of how they were missing her!

One evening, when she sought her room and sat down beside the window, as she had so often done at home, she began to review her life.  As the soft shadows gathered slowly about her, she seemed to be at home again close beside her mother’s knee, listening to her tender, loving words of sympathy and advice.  Bessie could now see what they had been worth to her.  They not only had prepared her for a common sphere in life, but had given her a thorough understanding of God’s great plan of salvation.  As she recalled her mother’s prayers and talks, she realized that, through them, she had many times escaped what other girls had ignorantly blundered into, and had been spared a great many of the bitter sorrows that come into the lives of girls not taught at their mother’s knee.  In her thankfulness, she offered a fervent prayer to her heavenly Father that many more earnest, noble, and prayerful mothers might be found to guide their children through the critical period of childhood.