OR ME.
1. "Will you come with us, Susan?" cried several little
girls to a schoolmate. "We are going to the woods; do come,
too."
2. "I should like to go with you very much," replied
Susan, with a sigh; "but I can not finish the task grandmother
set me to do."
3. "How tiresome it must be to stay at home to work on a
holiday!" said one of the girls, with a toss of her head.
"Susan's grandmother is too strict."
4. Susan heard this remark, and, as she bent her head over
her task, she wiped away a tear, and thought of the pleasant
afternoon the girls would spend gathering wild flowers in the
woods.
5. Soon she said to herself, "What harm can there be in
moving the mark grandmother put in the stocking? The
woods must be very beautiful to-day, and how I should like
to be in them!"
6. "Grandmother," said she, a few minutes afterwards, "I
am ready, now." "What, so

THIRD READER. 181
soon, Susan?" Her grandmother took the work, and looked at
it very closely.
7. "True, Susan," said she, laying great stress on each
word; "true, I count twenty turns from the mark; and, as you
have never deceived me, you may go and amuse yourself as
you like the rest of the day."
8. Susan's cheeks were scarlet, and she did not say,
"Thank you." As she left the cottage, she walked slowly
away, not singing as usual.
9. "Why, here is Susan!" the girls cried, when she joined
their company; "but what is the matter? Why have you left
your dear, old grandmother?" they tauntingly added.
10. "There is nothing the matter." As Susan repeated these
words, she felt that she was trying to deceive herself. She
had acted a lie. At the same time she remembered her
grandmother's words, "You have never deceived me."
11. "Yes, I have deceived her," said she to herself. "If she
knew all, she would never trust me again."
12. When the little party had reached an open space in the
woods, her companions ran about enjoying themselves; but
Susan sat on

182 ECLECTIC SERIES.

the grass, wishing she were at home confessing her fault.
13. After a while Rose cried out, "Let us make a crown of
violets, and put it on the head of the best girl here."
14. "It will be easy enough to make the crown, but not so
easy to decide who is to wear it," said Julia.
15. "Why, Susan is to wear it, of course," said Rose: "is
she not said to be the best girl in school and the most
obedient at home?"
16. "Yes, yes; the crown shall be for Susan,"

THIRD READER. 183
cried th