"I think I am changed," she said to herself, at last. "I
didn't use to like to read the Bible, and now I do very much;
— I never liked praying in old times, and now, oh! what should
I do without it! I didn't love Jesus at all, but I am sure I
do now. I don't keep his commandments, but I do _try_ to keep
them; — I _must_ be changed a little. Oh! I wish Mamma had known
it before!"
Weeping with mixed sorrow and thankful joy, Ellen bent her
head upon her little Bible to pray that she might be _more_
changed; and then, as she often did, raised the cover to look
at the texts in the beloved handwriting.
"I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall
find me."
Ellen's tears were blinding her. "That has come true," she
thought.
"I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee."
"That has come true, too!" she said, almost in surprise — "and
Mamma believed it would." — And then, as by a flash, came back
to her mind the time it was written; she remembered how, when
it was done, her mother's head had sunk upon the open page —
she seemed to see again the thin fingers tightly clasped — she
had not understood it then — she did now. "She was praying for
me," thought Ellen — "she was praying for me; she believed
that would come true."
The book was dashed down, and Ellen fell upon her knees, in a
perfect agony of weeping.
Even this, when she was calm again, served to steady her mind.
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