Anonymous

“ Her aunt, however, continued to take the kindest care of her, she watched for every opportunity to instruct and amend her, and she hoped that her heart was a little less selfish, her temper a little more restrained, and that she began to have more fear of doing wrong, to remember more constantly that the eye of God was ever upon her, even when she was alone and in thick darkness, and could see not only what she did do, but what she even wished to do in her mind. ”

“ But when little children will not be guided by the experience and judgment of their best and wisest friends, and will try for themselves, they often learn through much suffering and trouble, and pay dearly for the instruction which they might have had for nothing. ”

“ But Lucy put on her trimmed silk dress, and the lilac satin slippers she had bought to wear with it.
"Why my little girl," said her aunt, as she came into the room, "what could induce you to put on that rich silk to day? you can have no enjoyment of play in such a dress, and those delicate slippers too,—you cannot walk in them; remember we are going into the country, and shall wish to taste the sweet air of the fields, you had better run and change your dress now my [Pg 15] love, there is quite time enough, and Emily will go and assist you." ”

“ I am sure I am sorry for your sufferings, but if you will let them convince you, that pride—malice— [Pg 31] selfishness—wilfulness—and obstinacy, are all faults which will make you suffer more and more as long as you keep them, you may yet bless this day, as I shall most certainly, as the most fortunate of your life, and worth a purse full of such pieces as that which you have so foolishly thrown away. You start, my little girl, but I assure you that all these dreadful faults were in your heart when you determined to use your father's present as you did, and kept to that determination ”

“ Lucy had an aunt living in Boston, who was a sensible and a very kind-hearted woman. She heard that Lucy would become a disagreeable if not a wicked child, if some friend did not have compassion and try to save her from her [Pg 7] growing faults. She kindly sent to Lucy's Father who lived in New York, and persuaded him to let his daughter come and pass one year with her ”

“ While Lucy was thus sauntering along, one of Mrs. Russel's little girls [Pg 20] came running up to her full of spirits. "Come with us dear Lucy," said she, "we are going to the bottom of the pasture-field to look into Mr. Barrel's beautiful garden, 'tis much handsomer than ours, and there is an opening in the fence so that we can see it all plainly through the cracks. There are a great many images in the garden. In one place there is an old woman feeding chickens, and she is holding up her apron of corn so naturally, exactly as our Betsey does when she feeds our little ones ”

“ Lucy's mother would have taught her all this, for she saw these evils were already springing up to destroy the lovely blossom of virtue in her young bosom; but she died, and Lucy was left to the care of a most indulgent father; he did not like to correct his little girl, for he only saw her when his busy day was over, and then he wished to gratify all her desires, to fondle over her and play with her and bless her while he thought of her dear [Pg 5] mother whom he had lost ”

“ You shewed me then as clear as day, the lesson my heavenly Father was teaching [Pg 48] me, by all the bad accidents I met with and all the shame I felt; but I soon forgot all that—though you told me that if I did not correct my faults with a little suffering, something worse would be sent to me. ”

“ Thomas Russel had come out to assist John in catching his horse, (because [Pg 24] he was a frolicksome and troublesome horse to catch) and he was already so near that he heard Lucy's cries. He came to her, kindly took her up and quieted her fears, and showed her that the horse was a long way distant, and then he felt with his stick round in the ditch to find her beautiful lilac slipper. ”

“ One morning a few months after their ride to Brookline, while Lucy [Pg 36] was sitting in her chamber opposite to the open door, putting together a dissected map which her father had just sent to her, she saw her aunt come up stairs and go into her own room, with a little package in her hand, wrapped in white paper and tied with twine. Lucy supposed that it had come from New York with her map, and she felt very curious to know what it could be, that her aunt had folded up so neatly in white paper. ”

“ She immediately thought that her aunt had received some pretty present from New York, and she watched her to see if she opened the paper, and what she did with it, and saw that she went to her closet, stood up in a chair, and reaching to the highest shelf of her closet, opened a small trunk, and put the parcel into it; then she went to her bureau drawer, opened that, and laid [Pg 37] something in, shut the drawer and left the chamber. ”