Mean to be Tempted._--M.H., IN THE ROSE-BUD.

1. "Mother," said little Frank, "I wish you would tell me what it means
to be tempted. I heard you say, the other day, that people are tempted
to do many wicked things;--pray tell me, mother, if such a little boy as
I am is ever tempted?"

2. "Yes, my child, every day you live; and when I have told you what
temptation is, I think you will confess that you have not only been
tempted, but often yielded to temptation.

3. "To be tempted, means to be drawn by the offer of present pleasure to
do what is wrong. There are many kinds of temptation, and I think you
will understand me better if I give you an instance.

4. "You know, my dear Frank, that both your father and I have forbidden
your going to the pond where your cousin Henry was drowned, because we
think it very dangerous for you to venture there. But you also know that
the other day you went, and suffered severely afterward for your
disobedience."

5. "Yes, mother," said Frank; "but then I should not have gone, if
William Brown had not showed me his pretty ship, just as I was coming
out of school, and asked me to go see him launch it; and oh, mother, if
you had only seen it!

6. "It had masts and sails, just like a _real_ ship; and on the deck a
little man, which William called the captain. And then, when it was on
the water, it sailed along so sweetly!--the pond was as smooth as a
looking-glass, so that we could see two little ships all the time.

7. "I didn't think of disobeying you, mother; I only thought of the
pretty ship, and that there could be no harm in seeing William sail
it."--"The harm, my dear son (as you call it)," said his mother, "was
not in sailing the boat,--this is an innocent pleasure in itself; but it
was doing it after it had been forbidden by your parents, that made it
wrong.

8. "The temptation to disobedience came in the form of a little ship.
You were drawn by it to the pond, the forbidden spot. You saw it sail
gayly off, and stood on the bank delighted."

9. "But, mother," interrupted Frank, "I shouldn't have got into the
water and muddied my clothes, if the little ship hadn't got tangled in
the weeds; and the boys all shouted, Clear her! Clear her! and I
couldn't help stepping in, I was so near; and my foot slipped, and I
fell in."

10. "Yes," said his mother, "and but for assistance of your
play-fellows, you might have been drowned. But God, whose eye was upon
you all the while,