CHAPTER XXI.

ROSA STEVENSON'S SISTER.

As Christmas drew near Marty found herself very busy, for besides some little presents she was making for her "own folks," she and her mother set to work to mend some of her old toys, to dress some new cheap dolls, and to make a few picture-books of bright pretty cards pasted on silesia and yellow muslin, for the little Torrences and other poor children they knew of.

Edith, also, was engaged in the same way, and the little girls often worked together.

Though they had received some money on their birthdays, they concluded to wait until Christmas to give Jennie her Bible, as everybody appeared to think it would be a very suitable Christmas gift for her. They got Mrs. Ashford to go with them to buy it, and with her aid succeeded in getting a very nice one, good size, clear print, and pretty cover, for the money they had set aside for the purpose.

Their mothers gave them permission to run down the afternoon before Christmas to carry the Bible to Jennie, as there would not possibly be time to go Christmas day when there was so much going on. They were to call and ask Cousin Alice to go with them; but when they stopped at her house they found she had already gone over to Landis Court, but had left word for them if they came to follow her.

When they arrived at Mrs. Scott's room they found Miss Alice very busy indeed, hanging up some wreaths of green and otherwise decorating the room. She was hurrying to get it all in order before Mrs. Scott returned from her work, as it was to be a surprise to her. Jennie, sitting in the rocking-chair with the doll in her arms, was watching the operation with the greatest interest, every now and then exclaiming, "Oh, that's splendid! What'll mother say to that!"

When Marty and Edith appeared something else seemed to occur to her, and turning from the decorations she cried eagerly to them, "Oh, did you get--!" and then glancing at Miss Alice, covered her mouth with her hand, laughed very much, but would not finish what she had begun to say.

She nearly went wild over the beautiful Bible and could hardly thank the givers enough.

"And I can read it my own self too, 'cepting of course the long words,"

she said. "How queer it'll be to be sitting up reading a chapter to mother 'stead of her reading to me!"

"You might read to her those Christmas verses in Luke to-morrow that I read to you not long ago," Miss Alice suggested.

"Oh! I will. Where are they, I wonder?" said Jennie.

Edith found the place, while Marty snipped off a little bit of her blue hair-ribbon for a mark.

Some cakes and fruit Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Ashford sent Jennie were also highly appreciated. They had also sent some small but useful and pretty presents for her mother, which Jennie was to have the pleasure of giving to her. Thus they all tried to bring some Christmas joy into the poor little girl's life.

When Marty and Edith went home they each found a small parcel that Jimmy Torrence had left for them. They contained nicely crocheted bureau-covers for their dolls' houses, and were marked in Miss Alice's handwriting, "For Marty, from Jennie," and "For Edith, from Jennie."

"Ah! this was the secret she had with Cousin Alice," exclaimed Marty.

"Just look mamma! isn't it a pretty cover?"

Edith was equally pleased with hers, and Jennie seemed much pleased with their hearty thanks.

"I really believe she enjoyed making and giving those little things more than any other part of Christmas," said Miss Alice. "I suppose it made her feel as if she was in the Christmas times."

Marty never enjoyed any Christmas season so much as this one, when she worked so hard to give happiness to the poor. She had her temptations to overcome, too; for when the stores were filled with beautiful things that she would like to buy for herself or her friends, it was very hard to keep from entrenching on the money she had saved up for a special Christmas missionary offering. But her year's training in missionary giving had not gone for nothing, and she was able to make a missionary offering a part of her Christmas celebration.

The members of the band had not forgotten the talk they had had over Mrs. C----'s letter, when they resolved to try very hard to double their usual amount. The most of them were trying, and the sum was "rolling up," the treasurer said. Whether or not they would succeed in what they were aiming at, remained to be seen, but Miss Walsh encouraged them by saying that they would certainly come much nearer success by making continual efforts than by making no effort at all.

One morning when the holidays were over, and the little girls were on their way to school, Edith had a great piece of news to tell.

"What do you think!" she said. "Rosa Stevenson's grownup sister is going away next month to be a missionary!"

"_Is_ she really?" exclaimed Marty.

"Yes; going to j.a.pan, and Miss Agnes has asked her to come to the meeting next Sat.u.r.day and tell us about it."

The news spread, and the next Sat.u.r.day every one of the Twigs was there, gazing with wide-open eyes at the fair young girl who was going so far from home to carry the gospel to her ignorant sisters. Sitting there with tearful Rosa's hand clasped in hers, she told the girls that when she was studying in college, G.o.d had put it into her heart to carry the tidings of his salvation to the people who knew him not. She said that though it was very hard to leave home and friends, she felt it was her duty and privilege to go, and she was thankful that the way was open for her.

Then she showed them on the map what city she was going to, and told them something of the school in which she was to teach. She promised to write to the band some time, and in closing she earnestly appealed to them to do all they could for missions.

"Even be ready to go yourself if G.o.d calls you," she said. "When I was a little girl in a mission-band, saving up pennies and learning about these foreign lands, I never thought that one day I should be going to teach the girls of one of these countries and try to win them to Christ.

So there may be some among you whom G.o.d will call to this work, and I hope none of you will slight his call, but be ready to do his will in this matter as in all others."

Marty was very deeply impressed by what Miss Stevenson said. She thought it would be a grand thing to go away off as a missionary. She wondered if G.o.d would call her to go. She hoped he would. Only she would not wish to go to such a civilized country as j.a.pan; the very worst part of Africa or the wildest part of Asia would be what she would choose.

Her mind was so full of the subject that she did not want to talk about anything else, or to talk at all, and was glad that Edith was going to her aunt Julia's from the meeting, so she could walk home alone. She concluded that as soon as she reached home, she would go into her room and pray that she might be a missionary. Then she could not wait until she got home, and being on a quiet street, she slipped behind a tree-box and offered this little prayer: "Dear Lord, if missionaries are still needed by the time I grow up, I pray thee let me be one. For Jesus Christ's sake. Amen."

She walked in home very soberly for her, and going directly to her mother, asked, "Mamma, should you like me to go away over the seas and be a missionary?"

"No, indeed!" said her mother emphatically. "I should not like it at all. You mustn't think of such a thing."

"But if G.o.d calls me to go?" said Marty, with quivering lip.

It would be hard, after all, to leave this dear home. She scarcely knew whether she wanted her prayer answered or not.

"What do you mean?" inquired Mrs. Ashford, drawing her on her lap.

Then Marty told all about the meeting, and what she had been thinking, and how she had prayed to be a missionary.

"I want to be one if G.o.d wants me to, but I don't see how I _can_ go away and leave you all," she said, half crying.

"Well," said her mother soothingly, seeing she was trembling with excitement, "we need not talk about it yet. It will be a long time until you are old enough or know enough to go. You will have to go to school many years yet, and then, perhaps, to college, for you know the better missionaries are educated the more good they can do. Then you must learn to make your own clothes and take care of them, and it is well to know a good deal about housekeeping also, for missionaries have to know how to be independent, and be ready for any kind of life. You would hardly be prepared to go before you are twenty, anyway, and that is ten years yet."

"Nine and a half," put in Marty.

"In the meantime you can be doing as much as possible for missions at home."

"Yes," said Marty, wiping her eyes and looking comforted, "that's so. We needn't think of my going away yet, and I s'pose the right way is to do as Miss Agnes says. She says the best way in mission work, as in everything else, is just to do the nearest thing and do it as well as we possibly can, and then be willing to let G.o.d lead us along from one step to another."

"She is certainly right," said Mrs. Ashford.

"I have taken some steps since Edith got me started, haven't I? I've learned a good deal about missions, and I find it a great deal easier to give money regularly now than when I began. Don't you remember how at first I either wanted to give every cent I had or else not to give anything? But I found out that wasn't the best way to do."

"And another thing," said Mrs. Ashford, "you have been the means of some of the rest of us taking steps. Seeing how well your systematic giving is working, I have started in to do the same way."

"Oh! _have_ you, mamma?" exclaimed Marty. "Are you going to have a box for tenths? How delightful!"

"No, not a box--my square Russia-leather pocketbook. And not tenths exactly, but what you call the New Testament way."

"That's just lovely!" said Marty, caressing her. "I'm so glad. So we'll both be mission workers the rest of our lives, wont we?"

"With G.o.d's help, we will," replied her mother.