ome children, or let
the little creatures have a scramble for them? It would be capital fun,
that it would. Suppose you were to give them to the young Bennetts; I
told them the other day I would beg some of your old toys for them. It
would be such a pleasure, I am sure, to make them a present. Poor
children, you know, have seldom anything of the kind."

"How you talk!"

"How I talk!" continued William, "to be sure; besides, I hate waste, and
it is just as much waste to shut things up which might be of use, as it
would be to burn them; more, I think, for if they make firewood, that is
proving of some use. Now don't be such a miser, Charles, do turn them
out."

"I shall do no such thing!" exclaimed Charles, in an angry tone, "and as
for your extravagance, it is quite shocking; I wonder what you think is
to become of you when you are a man."

"I tell you what I expect," replied William, throwing some apples from
his pocket out of window to a poor child who was passing; "what I expect
is, to have to work very hard for my living, and, as I am the eldest, I
look upon it that I ought to do something for mamma, and the girls into
the bargain. But for all that I hope I shall never turn a miserly screw.
Why, when God gives us health, food, clothing, and lodging, don't you
think that hoarding and hoarding, instead of dispensing the blessings,
and performing such acts of kindness as may be in our power to bestow, is
like doubting God's goodness and mercy for the future?"

"One would think you were preaching," said Charles, with a sneer.

"Well, never mind if I am; it was only yesterday I was reading one of
dear papa's sermons, in which he quotes one of the most beautiful
chapters in the New Testament, the 12th of St. Luke, in which our Saviour
speaks of the ravens, which 'God feedeth,' though 'they neither sow nor
reap;' and of the 'lilies, how they grow.' And HE emphatically says,
'Seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of
doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek
after; and your Father knoweth ye have need of all these things. But
rather seek ye the kingdom of God, _and all these things shall be added
unto you_.'"

"Besides," continued William, after a slight pause, "it seems to me that
nature is constantly repeating the lesson which Scripture teaches us. See
how, year after year, the blades of wheat spring up, and the fruits of
the earth ripen, as if to w