Paula the Waldensian - Eva Lecomte

It was decided, in accord with Mlle. Virtud, to have classes twice a
week. Thursdays would be for reading, writing and arithmetic, and Sundays
would be a time for learning songs and for putting their studies into practice
by reading in the Bible, and, for what several had been asking, namely, to
learn how to pray.
If the Breton was a model scholar, this could not be said of his two
younger sons. These boys appeared to be much below the average in natural
intelligence, besides the fact that their ordinary educational opportunities
had, as in the case of Joseph, their older brother, been decidedly neglected.
Their father had compelled them to attend the "night-school," but apparently
they didn't seem to grasp what it was all about. Without any apparent cause
they both would suddenly duck down below the table to hide their
merriment. Whatever story, no matter how interesting, was read aloud, they
didn't appear to comprehend a word of it, and if a chapter from the Bible was
read they either showed elaborate signs of boredom or else they would doze
in their seats. Paula would gaze at them sadly--her young heart was grieved
at such colossal indifference.
The three comrades of the Breton, however, were decidedly different,
taking up their studies with great eagerness and listening well to everything
that was read aloud.
"It's a whole lot better here than spending our money at the liquor shop,"
they would say with a smile of satisfaction.
"I'll say so," the Breton would chime in. "I'll tell you what, comrades, if
I'd known only before all that one gains in Christ's service, I would have
started long ago on this new life with Him."
The happiest and most beloved of all in the school was Gabriel. He was
so happy that he was able to come in and study with the others; and when it
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