“So am I; and that my children have early learned to love and trust in him.

“’Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’  That is not a promise that God’s faithful followers shall be rich in this world’s goods, but faith in God’s loving care makes life happy even in the midst of poverty and pain.  Riches have not the power to make us happy, but the love of God has.

“And those who begin to serve God in the morning of life and press onward and upward all their days, keeping near to Jesus and growing more and more like him, will be happier in heaven—­because of their greater capacity for the enjoyment of God and holiness—­than the saved ones who sought him late in life, or were less earnest in their endeavors to live in constant communion with him, and to bear more and more resemblance to him.

“The Bible speaks of some who are ‘scarcely saved,’ and of others to whom ’an entrance shall be ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’”

“Papa,” said Lulu earnestly, “I want to be one of those; I want to live near to Jesus and grow every day more like him. (Oh I am so little like him now; sometimes I fear not at all).  Won’t you help me all you can?”

“I will, my darling,” he replied, speaking with emotion.  “Every day I ask wisdom from on high for that very work;—­the work of helping you and all my dear children to be earnest, faithful servants of God.”

The talk with her father had done much to quiet Lulu’s excitement, and she fell asleep very soon after laying her head on her pillow.

It was still night when she awoke suddenly with the feeling that something unusual was going on in the house.

She sat up in the bed and listened.  She thought she heard a faint sound coming from the room below, and slipping from the bed she stole softly across the floor to the chimney, where there was a hot air flue beside the open fireplace.

Dropping down on her hands and knees, she put her ear close to the register and listened again, almost holding her breath in the effort to hear.

The chimney ran up between her bedroom and the little tower room opening into it; the library was under her bedroom, and opening from it was the ground floor room of the tower, which was very strongly built, had only the one door and very narrow slits of windows set high up in the thick stone walls.

In a safe in that small room were kept the family plate, jewelry, and money; though no very great amount of the last named, as the captain considered it far wiser to deposit it in the nearest bank.

The door of the strong room, as it was called, was of thick oak plank crossed with iron bars, and had a ponderous bolt and stout lock whose key was carried up stairs every night by the captain.

Listening with bated breath, Lulu’s ear presently caught again a faint sound as of a file moving cautiously to and fro on metal.