go the right way about it."

"You say that you always attend to them when they come to you?" said
Mrs. Elder.

"Yes. I try to do so, no matter how much I am engaged."

"If I were to do that, I would be attending to them all the time. I
couldn't sit a moment with a visitor, nor say three words to
anybody. You saw how it was this morning. The moment I sat down to
talk with Mrs. Peters, Mary came and commenced interrupting me at
every word, until I was forced to put her from the room."

"Yes, I saw it," replied the brother in a voice that plainly enough
betrayed his disapproval of his sister's conduct in that particular
instance.

"And you think I ought to have neglected my visitor to attend to an
ill-mannered child?"

"I think, when Mary came to you, as she did, that you should have
attended to her at once. If you had done so, you would have relieved
her from pain, and saved yourself and visitor from a serious
annoyance."

"How do you mean?"

"Don't you know what Mary wanted?"

"No."

"Is it possible! I thought you learned it when she came to me after
Mrs. Peters had left.

"No, I didn't know. What was the matter with her?"

The brother stepped to the door and called for Mary, who presently
came running down-stairs.

"What do you want, uncle?" said she, as she came up to him and
lifted her sparkling blue eyes to his face.

"What were you going to ask your mother to do for you when Mrs.
Peters was here this morning?"

"A pin stuck me," replied the child, artlessly. "Don't you know that
you took it out?"

"Yes, so I did. Let me look at the place," and he turned down Mary's
frock so that her mother could see the scratched and inflamed spot
upon her neck.

"Poor child!" said Mrs. Elder, the tears springing to her eyes as
she stooped down and kissed the wounded place.

"Are you playing with the cards yet, dear?" asked Uncle William.

"Yes, sir."

"Do you want to play more?"

"Yes, sir."

"Run along then." And Mary tripped lightly away.

"When the child first spoke to you, Sarah, if you had paused to see
what she wanted, all would have been right in a few minutes. Even if
her request had been frivolous, by attending to it you would have
satisfied her, and been in a much better frame of mind to entertain
your friend."

Mrs. Elder was silent. There was conviction in Mary's inflamed neck
not to be resisted; and the conviction went to her heart.

"We," said the old gentleman, "who have attained