CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

A PECULIAR CONFIDANT--MORE DIFFICULTIES, AND VARIOUS PLANS TO OVERCOME THEM.

When Alice Mason was a little child, there was a certain tree near her father's house to which, in her hours of sorrow, she was wont to run and tell it all the grief of her overflowing heart. She firmly believed that this tree heard and understood and sympathised with all that she said. There was a hole in the stem into which she was wont to pour her complaints, and when she had thus unburthened her heart to her silent confidant she felt comforted, as one feels when a human friend has shared one's sorrows.

When the child became older, and her sorrows were heavier and, perhaps, more real, her well-nurtured mind began to rise to a higher source for comfort. Habit and inclination led her indeed to the same tree, but when she kneeled upon its roots and leaned against its stem, she poured out her heart into the bosom of Him who is ever present, and who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities.

Almost immediately after landing on the island Alice sought the umbrageous shelter of her old friend and favourite, and on her knees thanked God for restoring her to her father and her home.

To the same place the missionary directed his steps, for he knew it well, and doubtless expected to find his daughter there.

"Alice, dear, I have good news to tell you," said the missionary, sitting down beside her.

1. Did Alice have a human friend to tell about her worries?
2. When she was little, what did she tell instead?
3. What part would she speak into?
4. True or False: Later she would go to the same tree but tell her problems to God instead.
5. Is the tree on an island?
6. What is her father's job?
7. What did he have to tell her?
8. What is the girl's name?
9. What is the father's name?
10. What did the tree grow near?
11. Did she believe the tree could hear her?
12. What else did she believe it did?
13. What made her pick the same tree when she was older?
14. What did she kneel on?
15. What did she do at its stem?
16. True or False: The narrator says that God can sympathize with our weaknesses.
17. Did the father know about the tree?
18. Where did he sit?
19. Was he surprised to see her there?
20. What had she thanked God for?
1. No
2. A tree
3. A hole in the stem
4. True
5. Yes
6. Missionary
7. Good news
8. Alice Mason
9. unknown
10. Her father's house
11. Yes
12. It understood and sympathised with all that she said
13. Habit and inclination
14. Its roots
15. Leaned against it
16. True
17. Yes
18. Beside her
19. No
20. Restoring her to her father and her home