“I shall be able to help you a lot after tea,” said Dorothy, before returning to her kitchen duties.

As soon as they were over, and she had changed her dress, she peeped into her father’s room to see if he was sleeping.

“Dear daddy,” said she, stroking his white brow and smoothing the pillow, “you will soon be better now.”

[Illustration:  “The twenty-seventh Psalm.”]

“How does my little one know that?”

“Because the doctor generally goes away frowning, but to-day he actually had a smile on his face.  Daddy”—­with a sudden movement, as though she had just thought of something—­“shall I read you something?  I have nothing to do before tea.”

“Do, my darling.”

The twenty-seventh Psalm was read in a soft, low voice.

The sick man’s eyes were riveted on the reader’s face.  “Child, what made you read that Psalm?”

“Because, daddy, it’s one of my favorites.  Did you like it?”

“Yes.”  Then in a still lower voice, “I must tell you this, for God has been so good to me.  I have prayed all day that He would send me some sign or message.  And then you bring me words that have put new life into me.  ’I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.’  ’Be strong, and let thine heart take courage.’  Child,” and there was a glad ring in the voice, “you have been doing angel’s work.”

Twilight was filling the valley when again the angels met.  “How has your work fared to-day, companion?” asked the Angel of the Rainbow.

“My work has sped well to-day, for a girl in a lowly home, just along the path of her daily life, has helped me greatly.  Ever so many times during the hours of light she has started, here and there, the sweet chiming bells of hope.”

“Ah,” said the Angel of the Rainbow, “now I understand how it was they sounded so much clearer to-day, and why my colors were so bright.  Did you see the lovely bow I threw across from hill to hill, and then a second one, the rays gleaming all down the cliffs?  Did they not make you think of the Rainbow round the Throne?  It is only as I catch hope’s glad singing rising from the byways below that I can paint my brightest colors.”

[Illustration]

ONE GIRL’S INFLUENCE

* * * * *

“A young girl went from home,” writes Mrs. Sangster, “to a large school where more than usual freedom of action and less than customary restraints were characteristics of the management.  She found very little decided religious life there—­an atmosphere, upon the whole, unfavorable to Christian culture.  But she had given herself to the Lord, and she could live nowhere without letting her light shine.

“In a very short time she found two or three congenial spirits, more timid than herself, but equally devoted.  A little prayer meeting began to be held once a week in her room.  On Sabbaths in the afternoon, a few of the girls came together to study the Bible.  Before the half year was over, the hallowed flame had swept from heart to heart, and there was a revival in that school.”