Preston called to me to stay and have some fruit; but I went
on to the study, not caring for fruit or for anything else. I
felt very dull and miserable. Then I remembered that my
governess probably did care for some fruit and would be
delayed a little while; and then I tried what is the best
preparation for study or anything else. I got down on my
knees, to ask that help which is as willingly given to a child
in her troubles as to the general of an army. I prayed that I
might be patient and obedient and take disagreeable things
pleasantly and do my duty in the multiplication table. And a
breath of rest came over my heart, and a sort of perfume of
remembered things which I had forgotten; and it quite changed
the multiplication table to think that God had given it to me
to learn, and so that some good would certainly come of
learning it; at least the good of pleasing Him. As long as I
dared I staid on my knees; then — I was strong for the fives
and sixes.
But it was not quick work; and though my patience did not flag
again nor my attention fail, the afternoon was well on the way
before I was dismissed.
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