The light of a beautiful Sabbath was fast fading, and the last golden gleams fell softly upon the form of a light-haired little girl who sat by a cottage window, her head leaning upon her hand as if in deep thought.

The sun had departed like a grand old monarch, leaving behind him a glory of purple and gold more beautiful than his own full splendor.  Yet the little girl saw nothing of all this beauty.  She was thinking of the story in the Sabbath school book she had been reading,—­the story of a child’s life; and she wondered if all that happened in the story could be really true.

Jennie was pondering in her troubled brain a question which the reading of the book had brought.  What could it be?  Evidently it was not to be answered easily, for her face only grew more clouded, until at last she resolved to ask the help of some wiser mind.

Fortunately, Jennie knew that she had but to make her perplexities known to her mother and they would all be explained in the clearest way; so, seating herself in her rocking-chair by her mother’s side, she said:—­

“Mamma, I want you to tell me something.”

“Well, dear, what is it?”

“I’ve just finished my Sabbath school book, you know, and it’s just perfectly lovely; all about the sweetest little girl; only she was always doing so many kind things for everybody; and I’ve been trying to think what’s the reason little girls in books always have so many chances for doing good, and little girls like me, who are out of books, don’t have any at all.”

“Not any at all?” questioned the mother.  “Is that really so?”

“Well, no, not quite, I suppose,” said Jennie, “but then they are just nothing but the tiniest little bits of things.  There’s never anything big and splendid for real little girls like me to do.

“Now, Susy Chrystie, in the story, took her little sister May out for a walk, and just while they were crossing a bridge, May pulled her hand away from Susy’s, and tried to walk on the edge, just as close as she could; but in about one second her foot slipped, and she would have fallen off into the water if her sister hadn’t jumped right to her, and caught hold of her dress, and pulled her back all safe.

“Now just think, mamma,” said Jennie, her blue eyes opening widely as she spoke, “Susy Chrystie saved her little sister’s life; wasn’t that a splendid, big something to do?”

“Yes, my dear, that was a brave thing for a little girl to do, for even an older person might have been too frightened by seeing the danger May was in, to act quickly; but if my little Jennie will always try to keep quite still, and never scream when any sudden fright comes to her, she too may be able to think quickly of the best way in which to help herself or others.”

[Illustration:  “Susy Chrystie saved her little sister’s life.”]

“But, mamma, you know that nothing ever does happen to me; and besides, I haven’t any little sister or brother.”