“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
      Look upon a little child,
      Pity my simplicity,
      Suffer me to come to Thee
      Fain I would to Thee be brought;
      Dearest God, forbid it not;
      But in the kingdom of Thy grace
      Grant a little child her place.

“Pray God bless dear father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, and all kind friends and relations, and help me to be a good girl, for Christ’s sake.  Amen.”

Then, with one look at her rose to see if there were any more buds on it, and a glance into the garden to see if grandfather was still there, she lay down in her little white bed, and with a kiss from granny and a last good-night she would be asleep almost before granny had reached the foot of the stairs.

Then when morning came Jessie was just as glad to open her eyes and spring out of bed as she had been to spring into it, for life was full of all sorts of delights, indeed she would have liked nothing better than for it to go on and on always in the same happy way.  With Mrs. Dawson, though, things were different.  Granny began to grow very troubled about Jessie’s education.

“It is time she was learning,” she said anxiously, many a time.  “I know she ought to go to Sunday-school regularly, but I don’t know how it is to be managed.  She can’t walk there and back three times a day, I am sure.  If she walked there and back in the morning, and there and back in the afternoon, she wouldn’t be fit to go with us in the evening too.  She would be tired out.  We couldn’t go to church in the evening either, for one of us would have to stay with her.”

Grandfather sat for a few moments meditating deeply over this problem, then, “I can teach her myself for a bit on Sundays,” he exclaimed triumphantly, his dear old face lighting up at the thought of it.  “I know enough about the Bible and Prayer-book for that.  It would do me good too.”

“But there’s her other schooling.  What can we do about that?”

“I s’pose she’ll have to do as the other children do,” said grandfather gravely, “and walk there and back twice every day.  Some of the bigger ones would let her walk with them, then she would be safe enough.  We will begin our Sunday-school next Sunday”—­his blue eyes lighting up with pleasure at the thought of it.  The day-school was quite a secondary matter to him, with the idea of that other filling his mind.  “We can sit in the garden while the fine weather lasts.  It would be lovely there, and good for the little maid too.”

So, when Sunday came, grandfather’s big chair and Jessie’s little one were carried out into the garden, and placed side by side, near the porch, and a little table was carried out, too, for grandfather’s Bible and Prayer and hymn-books, and then, looking very pleased but serious, the pair seated themselves.  The dear old man was a little bit shy and embarrassed, and very nervous when it actually came to the point, and for a moment he looked more like a new shy pupil than the teacher.  Jessie was much the more composed of the two.