1oo The Story of the Hamillons.

alongside of Lucy Price's, with which she
was pleased; Annie's was quite on the other
side of the room. A good deal of laughing
and talking was going on whilst they were
undressing, and it did not cease when Edith
took out her Bible for her evening reading;
she tried and tried again to attend, but with
such a noise found it next to impossible. She
did not dare to ask them to be quiet, and at
length reluctantly closed the book, and made
a pretence of being very busy till there should
be a lull in the conversation to enable her to
say her prayers. Miss Thompson, however,
came for the candle in the meantime, and
was somewhat surprised at finding no one but
Lucy Price in bed. She waited a minute or
so for them, and then wishing them good-
night, took the light and went down-stairs.
As soon as she was gone, Edith, as noise-
lessly as possible, crept out of bed, and, kneel-
ing down, said her prayers, and thought over
a few verses of Scripture which she had that
morning learnt by heart. It struck her after-
wards as rather strange that she did not
remember having seen the others kneel down,
but she concluded she had not noticed them,
and quickly forgetting them and her new
bedroom, she was soon asleep.