posed to attend to the summons.

'You _must_ get up; indeed you must!' urged Clara, gently shaking her
cousin by the shoulder. 'I shall not have done all I have to do before
prayers, if we don't make haste.'

'Why, what have we to do before breakfast? And what time do you have
breakfast?' drowsily inquired Mabel, rising, however, at this second
appeal of her cousin's.

'We have prayers at eight, then breakfast; but I have my chickens to
feed, and my lessons to prepare before that time,' said Clara.

'Lessons before breakfast! Oh, I shall hate that!' exclaimed Mabel. 'I
hope they are not hard ones, for I shall never learn them if they are.'

'Well, I don't know what you call hard,' replied her cousin. 'I find
mine rather difficult sometimes, but Aunt Mary is so kind in explaining
everything, that it is quite a pleasure to learn with her.'

'I'm sure I shouldn't think her kind,' said the ungrateful Mabel. 'I
can't bear people that are so prim and stiff as Aunt Mary is, always
seeming determined to make you do just what they like, whether you wish
it or not.'

'Oh, Mabel!' said her cousin, 'I wonder how you can speak so
disrespectfully of dear Aunt Mary; and what you are saying is quite
untrue.'

'And I suppose,' retorted the ill-conditioned girl, 'you will go and
tell her what I have said, and we shall have a row.'

Clara was so astonished at hearing this speech from her cousin, that she
suspended the operation of dressing for a moment.

Then she said quickly:

'Mabel, we don't tell tales here; and I never before heard anyone speak
unkindly of our aunt, nor did I ever hear her speak unkindly to anyone.
Don't let us talk any more,' she added; 'I am going to say my prayers.
Come, kneel down with me, and let us thank our Father in heaven for
taking care of us through the night, and ask Him to bless us before we
begin our day's work.'

Mabel knelt down beside the bed with her cousin. She had always been
accustomed to repeat a set form of words; whether they were the
utterances of the 'soul's sincere desire,' we cannot say: but we do know
that if we _pray_ in sincerity against sin, we shall _strive_ against
it, and Mabel was not doing this. Clara's first occupation on going down
stairs was to look after her feathered family; and in this she had a
ready seconder in Mabel, whose delight in seeing the pretty chickens was
unbounded.

'Oh, do let me take one out, Clara! I won't hurt it; dear, sweet little
thing!' s