"But, Gratia," said, her mother, “you would have to sail over the broad ocean, and the ship might be broken in pieces, and you would be drowned."

"If I was good, mother," replied Gratia, "it would matter little where I died; I should go to heaven."

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O pure and simple faith! how like and yet how unlike a child! I would that my little readers could feel as Gratia did, and would love God so well as to be willing to die at any time and in any place.

It was also during this winter, when she was four years old, that Gratia learned to read. Her father left home the first week in January, to be absent four weeks. When he left, she did not know her letters, but when he returned, she was able to read a chapter from the New Testament correctly. He was

very much surprised, and she as much delighted at learning to read. Her mother says, "She commenced with the alphabet, then took a primer, which had pictures, with very short words and sentences. She learned a short spelling and reading lesson correctly every day."

Do you know what correctly means? It does not mean nearly perfect; it does not mean very well; but it means that every word and letter was learned. And now we will see how much good it did

her.

"When she had read and spelled that book through," says her mother, "she was able to read almost any thing or any book. She always kept this little primer, calling it her dictionary."

When she found a word in reading that she could not pronounce, she usually knew just where to look for it in her little dictionary, if she had ever seen it there.

After Gratia learned to read, she was eager to search every book that came in her way. She culled the family library, and if ever any thing was referred to in any of the books, she was often able to speak of it as if she had read it with understanding, though they were books far above her years.

CHAPTER V.

CHILDREN can learn to be missionaries when quite young, and can teach their playmates as well as children abroad. Gratia began her labours at home. She used to talk with her little playmates a great deal about their being good, and loving the Saviour, and trying to be Christians. She has often been heard repeating texts of Scripture to them, and then trying to explain their meaning. She would tell them in a gentle, loving way about Jesus, when he was upon earth; how he took little children in his arms and blessed them, and invited them to come to him at all times; and how he died upon the cross for them as well as for older people. Full of joy, she would tell them what the Bible says of heaven,

repeating such passages as,

"There shall

be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light." "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." These she would try to explain in her own words, and would give them beautiful descriptions of that world of love, probably as they were impressed upon her own mind.

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'Oh, yes," she would say, "it will be

a bright and beautiful place; and all good little children will go there. My dear little brother is there. He is an angel now, with pretty wings. Should you like to be an angel too?" Then she would ask each one if she thought herself a Christian, and if she wished to live with God; and would repeat what the Bible tells us to do to become Christians.

There was a little girl about Gratia's