EYE-SERVICE; OR,

 explain fully what her mind could not grasp without
 assistance; but it did not make her any brighter to
 keep watching the hands of the clock, or to draw
 caricatures of the master on her slate, which were
 hastily rubbed out on his near approach. But there
 was an improvement this Tuesday. Lydia bent her
 mind to listen to Mr. Simpson's explanations; and,
 when her neighbour on the one side nudged her to
 remark his very square-toed shoes, and the girl on the
 other side trod on her toes to make her speak, she
 steadily resisted both calls to inattention, and worked
 so hard that when Mr. Simpson looked over the slate,
 his stiff features relaxed into a smile, and he said,
 approvingly, "You have been industrious this morn-
 ing, Miss Snowdon."
 Three weeks passed, and more and more Lydia
 prized the spare time she gained in the morning by
 rising when the first bell rang. It was a comfort as
 well as a need to seek strength by prayer, and study.
 ing her long-neglected Bible; and she was beginning
 to realize that the disciple of Christ must endure hard-
 ness, and deny himself, and take up the cross daily, if
 he would really follow Him.
 To stand alone in any community is painful; to
 feel isolated from sympathy, and marked as peculiar,
 from whatever cause, can never be delightful; and
 perhaps no situation can be much harder than that of
 a school-girl bent upon doing right in spite of unkind-
 ness or coolness from her companions. Actions mis-
 understood, motives misinterpreted, tend to make life
 very wearisome to her, and the pitiless shafts of ridicule
 fall with a keen, smarting pain on a young heart new
 to conflict; and thus Lydia, after being laughed at by
 Julia and one or two of her followers, and shunned by
the rest, felt rather out of spirits; though no outward