who was noted all over the
neighborhood for being close-fisted. Almost as soon as the good man
had got into the house, she invited him to go into the buttery, and
look at her nice cheeses. He went in, the old lady acting as a guide.
"There," said she, pointing to a mammoth cheese which she had just
made for the fair, and which she was particularly proud of, "there's a
cheese for you." "Thank you, Aunt Katy," said the minister, "my wife
was saying only this morning that we should have to get a new cheese
pretty soon." And he took the cheese down from the shelf, carried it
out to his wagon, bade the astonished lady of the house a good
morning, and drove off to visit some of the rest of his flock.

Selfishness has the same face, look at it where you will. It made
quite a scar in the features of Caroline's character. Without that,
they would have been beautiful--with it, they were ugly enough.

But about that kitten. Clara Goodsell was as full of fun as a hickory
nut is of meat. She heard of Caroline's kitten, and she, too, was
invited to call and see it. She did not go, though, and, indeed, the
girls very generally failed to comply with the invitation. They knew
well enough that, if they went to see the kitten, they would not be
allowed to take it, and that all they could do would be to stand a
little way off, and look at it, and remark how beautiful it was.

One day, when the girls at school were required to write compositions,
Clara thought she would write something which would make Carrie
ashamed of her selfishness. The teacher read all the compositions
aloud. When he came to Clara's, the girls had as much as they could do
to keep from laughing, for they knew, before it was read, what it was
about. The schoolmaster had to bite his lips to keep from smiling a
little, too.

Clara did not call any names. But she wrote such a composition about
"_My Pretty Kitten_" that anybody could see it was meant for
Caroline. The selfish girl saw it, as well as the rest, and before
school was out, she burst into tears, she felt so badly. But the
composition did her good. She improved wonderfully after that.

X.

"I DON'T KNOW."

How difficult it is for many people to say these words. They don't
like to own that they are ignorant of anything. They want to make you
think that they know everything. When you ask them a hard question,
instead of saying right out, plumply and honestly, "I don't know,"
they will try to trump u