CHAPTER XVI.

BEN'S PRESENT.

Soon Ben came in, and missing the little girl at the gate, cried, "Where's Kittie?" Mrs. Gray looked towards the chair where she sat, and Kittie's tear-stained face told the story.

"You haven't been naughty, have you. O Kit! What is it, mother?"

"She has been lifting Harry again, and both have fallen, and he has got hurt. You've heard me tell her not, Ben, many times; now she has to sit there and no one is to speak to her, and"--Mrs. Gray hesitated. She dreaded carrying out the rest of the punishment.

"And me's to have tea all alone," cried Kit.

"Oh! what a pity!" said Ben, "O mother! isn't she sorry enough?"

"She is sorry, I believe; but you must not beg her off, Ben," and Mrs. Gray made ready a plate of bread and butter and a mug of milk and carried them into the other room, saying, "Come, Kittie."

Kittie followed, and Ben looked very forlorn. Mrs. Gray put her up at the table in the little sitting room.

"Do you love me?" asked Kittie.

"Dearly," said her mother.

"Now?" she asked again in surprise.

"Yes, now."

"When I'm naughty?"

"Yes, but's it's a sorrowful kind of love."

"Then, I'll never be naughty any more," said Kittie, clasping her mother's neck.

"I hope not, darling," said the mother. "Have you asked God to help you to be obedient?"

"Yes, and to 'wash me whiter than snow,' and He's done it, hasn't He, mother?"

"He has, dear. He always answers when we pray aright. Now you must take your tea quietly, and then come and get a kiss from father."

"Have you _fordiven_ me?" asked the little girl anxiously.

"I have, dear."

"Is she all right, mother?" asked Ben eagerly.

"Quite," answered the mother, with fast-filling eyes, "but I thought you were going to make some toast, Ben?"

"So I was, but I can't do a thing when Kit isn't happy. You know I never could," bending down to kiss baby in her cradle.

They gathered round the tea table, but Ben ate nothing. After a few minutes he asked, "How long is Kittie to stay there?"

"Till she has finished her tea," said mother, with a longing look at the other door, which stood open, and from inside of which they heard deep drawn sighs.

"May I see if she has finished?" asked Ben, starting up.

"I think he might, dear," added the father.

Ben was off in a twinkling.

"The boy is eating nothing, and we've kept our word," added Gray.

"So we have, and she's very sorry. She may come now."

"Kittie not hurt me again, she not mean it," lisped Harry.

"Have you finished your tea, Kittie?" asked Ben.

"Yes, it's all done," she answered, eyeing Ben to see what he thought.

"And you are sorry, Kittie. You won't try and lift Harry again, not till you are bigger, because mother says 'no,' and mother knows what is best."

"I'll try and never be naughty not any more, Ben."

"It grieves Jesus, you know?"

"Yes, and makes black stains on my heart, but this one is washed away, Ben; I asked Him to make me whiter 'an snow, so it's gone."

"I'm so glad; now come and kiss father, and I'll show you something."

Father was only too glad to give the kiss, and then Ben brought out a present for Kit, and handed her a neat little testament.

"I've got one, too; you see, I've been working extra hard lately, and Mr. Goodall has been more about the shop, because its 'stock-taking,' so to-day he called me in, and told me to choose a book for myself, and I said 'a testament for Kit, please,' so he gave me these two--one for each of us."

Kittie was delighted, and felt the responsibility too, of having God's Word in her possession.

"Please write our names in, and a text," said Ben, "and put in Kit's 'with Ben's best love.'"

"And put in Ben's 'with Kit's best love,'" echoed Kittie.

"Yes, do?" added Ben.

The father wrote, in both books, their names and a text. In Kittie's it was, "Jesus said, 'Suffer little children to come unto Me'" (Matt.