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The beautiful new dress I bought would please my sister well;
How do you like this India fan, I ask you, Minnie Bell?"
"O, it is very beautiful! I thank you, Alfred, dear;
But yet you have not told me, what most I wish to hear."
"Well, Minnie," said her brother, "if really you must know,
When I sailed for California my Bible did not go.
"I know 'twas wrong to leave it out, for never have I seen
A Bible or a Testament in any place I've been;
We did not often think of God when we were digging gold;
That is the truth; now, Minnie dear, pray don't begin to scold."
"Forgotten God for three long years! Alfred, can this be true?
Dear brother, were you not afraid of God's forgetting you?"
