o than last week, that, in crossing a field, I
overtook three children: one, a little girl of about five years old, was
on the foot-path, and, just as I came up, her brother called her to him,
where he was in the field.

21. "No, William," said the little maid; "my mother told me not to go
off the foot-path, and it would be very wicked to disobey my mother."

22. I caught the little creature up in my arms; and having a small neat
book in my pocket, suitable for a child, I gave it to her, and told her
to remember that the reason why I gave it was, that she had been
obedient to her mother.

"Though cares on cares in parent hearts be piled,
Great is that blessing--an obedient child!"

23. Without obedience there can be no order. The man must obey his
master, the maid her mistress, and the scholar his teacher. If you
attend a Sunday-school, whatever class you are in, be obedient to your
instructors, or you will make but little progress. By obedience you will
learn faster, secure the respect of those about you, and set a proper
example to those younger than yourself.

24. If you are in a place of work, be obedient to your employer. Those
make the best masters and mistresses who have been the most obedient
servants; for the discharge of one duty disposes us to perform another.

25. The best way to qualify yourselves to act well when grown up, is to
act well while you are children.

LESSON XXXIX.

_Obstinacy._--LESSONS WITHOUT BOOKS.

1. There is a certain fault which almost all children have in a greater
or less degree. It is called by different names; sometimes it is termed
wilfulness, sometimes pertinacity, and sometimes it receives the still
harsher name of obstinacy.

2. Almost all our faults are owing to the perversion or abuse of
propensities originally good; and perseverance, when carried too far, or
expended upon unworthy objects, becomes a troublesome infirmity.

3. Louisa and Emily had both something of this infirmity, but differing
both in degree and in its mode of operation.

4. What are called _little things_ did not trouble Emily at all; and, on
the contrary, they troubled Louisa very much.

5. But, when anything did seem peculiarly desirable to Emily,--when she
set her heart upon having her own way,--she carried her perseverance to
a degree which deserved to be called obstinacy.

6. She could _give up_, as children term it, with less effort, and more
grace, than most others; bu