t if anything determined her not to give up,
she was immovable.

7. "You are almost always in the right," my daughter, her father once
said to her, "and Heaven preserve you from error; for when you once fall
into it, you will be too apt to persevere."

8. It happened, at one time, that she and Louisa were having some nice
sun-bonnets made. Emily went for them at the time when they were to be
finished, and finding only one completed, immediately appropriated it to
herself, because she was really in greater need of it than Louisa, who
had one that answered her purpose very well.

9. Louisa resented this, because that, being the eldest, she considered
herself as having the first right; but Emily could not be persuaded to
give up, although Louisa's equanimity was very much disturbed on that
account.

10. If it had been proposed to her beforehand to let Louisa have the
bonnet voluntarily, she would not have hesitated, for she was not
selfish; but when Louisa claimed it as a right, she resisted.

11. Her mother afterwards told her that she should always avoid
irritating the peculiar humors of her companions. "You," said she,
"would not have minded waiting for the other bonnet a day or two, but to
Louisa it was quite a serious evil."

12. And here let me remark upon the proneness which all children have to
magnify the importance of little things. A strife often arises among
them, about just nothing at all, from a mere spirit of competition.

[Illustration]

13. One says, "This is my seat." Another, who would not else have
thought of desiring that particular seat, immediately regards it in the
light of a prize, and exclaims, "No, I meant to have that seat; and I
had it just before you took it."

14. Half a dozen claimants will appear directly, and perhaps get into a
serious quarrel; whereas, had the reply been, in the first instance,
"Very well, let it be your seat," there would have been an end to the
matter.

15. But to return to Louisa. She magnified a thousand little things, of
every day occurrence, in such a manner as proved a very serious
inconvenience to herself.

16. She wished to have her potato sliced, but never mashed. She could
not bear to see a door open a single moment; and, even if she were at
her meals, and the closet door happened to stand ajar, she would jump up
and fly to shut it, with the speed of lightning.

17. She could not _endure_ the feeling of gloves; nor could she any
better endure to