ir dispositions?"

"Depend upon it," added Miss Campbell, "that as we are assured in the
Scriptures, that 'for every idle word we shall be brought to account,' so,
in a particular manner, must we be judged for all those idle words and
actions which have inflicted on any of our fellow-creatures pains we have
no right to bestow, or tempted them to sins they had no inclination to
follow; the petty tyrannies of our whims, changes, and fancies--of our
scoldings, complainings, peremptory orders, and causeless contradictions,
will all one day swell that awful list of sins, of which it may be truly
said, 'we cannot answer one in a thousand.'"

When Miss Campbell ceased speaking, Ellen, who, although not affected so
violently as Matilda, had yet felt much for Zebby's situation, and was
seriously desirous of profiting by all she heard, said in a low voice--"I
will do every thing for myself--I will never trouble Susan, or Betty, or
any body."

Mrs. Harewood knew the bent of her daughter's mind, and that although, from
the sweetness of her temper and the mildness of her manners, she was not
likely to fall into Matilda's errors, there were others of an opposite
class, from which it was necessary to guard her; she therefore
added--"Although consideration and kindness are certainly the first duties
to be insisted upon in our conduct, yet there are others of not less
importance. It is the place of every mistress to exact obedience to
reasonable commands and the execution of all proper services. If she does
not do this, she deserts her own station in society, defeats the intentions
she was called to fulfil, and which made her the guide and guardian, not
the companion and fellow-server, of her servants. In abandoning them to
their own discretion, she lays upon them a burden which, either from
ignorance or habit, they are probably unequal to endure, since it is
certain that many truly respectable persons in this class have been only
so while they were under the controlling eye or leading mind of their
superiors. Besides, all uncommon levity of manners, like all unbecoming
freedom in conversation, more frequently arises from weakness or idleness
in the parties, and ought to be guarded against in our conduct, as never
failing to be degradatory to ourselves, and very far from beneficial to
those they affect to serve: it is possible to be very friendly, yet very
firm; to be gentle, yet resolute, and at once a fellow-Christian and a good
mas