how slight the sacrifice, she felt ashamed of her inclination to
murmur at it.

So Nelly's education began with the alphabet; and though it was a
drudgery both for teacher and pupil, reciprocal kindness and gratitude
helped on the task, and before many weeks had passed Nelly was
spelling words of two syllables, and had learned some truths, at
least, of far greater importance.




VII.

_Temptations._

"Or rather help us, Lord, to choose the good--
To pray for naught, to seek to none but Thee;
Nor by our 'daily bread' mean common food;
Nor say, 'From this world's evil set us free.'"


The Sunday school was again assembled on another Sunday afternoon,
some weeks later. The day was even warmer than the one on which our
story opened, and all the church windows were opened to their widest
extent, to admit every breath of air which came in through the waving
pine boughs. Lucy had been promoted to teach a small class of her own,
in which Nelly Connor had willingly taken her place. She was indeed
advancing faster in spiritual than in secular learning; for in the
first she had the best of all teachers, to whose teaching her simple