sides
this she had told Uncle Nathan at the first, she was sure I would
turn out a bad boy, and, like all positive people, she disliked to
acknowledge herself in the wrong. The reader is not to suppose that I
consider myself as having been any thing like perfect at the time of
which I am speaking; on the contrary, I had my full share of the failing
and short-comings common to my age, and often my own temper would rise
when Aunt Lucinda found fault with me, or in some other way manifested
a feeling of dislike, and the bitter retort would rise to my lips; but
I believe I can say with truth that I never gave utterance to a
disrespectful word. My mother's counsel to me before leaving home,
recurring to my mind, often prevented the impatient and irritable
thought from finding expression in words; and before the winter was
over, I found, what every one has found who tried the experiment, that
there is scarcely a nature so cold and unfeeling as to withstand the
charm of continued kindness. The last remaining feeling of animosity on
the part of my aunt died out when my mother sent me a letter containing
a small sum of pocket-money, and, without saying a word of my intention
to any one, I expended this money in the purchase of a brooch, as a
present to my aunt. The article was neither large nor showy, but was
uncommonly neat and tasteful. It was an emerald in a setting of fine
gold, and of considerable value; in fact, to buy it I was obliged to
empty my purse of the last cent it contained. When, with a diffident
manner, I presented the gift, asking my aunt to accept it for a
keepsake, as well as a token of my gratitude for her kindness, a truly
happy expression came over her usually rather stern countenance. "It was
not," she said, "the value of the gift alone which pleased her, but it
made her happy to know that I had sacrificed so much to make her a
present; but" said she "I'll take good care that you will be no loser
by remembering your Aunt Lucinda."

I felt more than paid for the sacrifice I had made to give pleasure to
another; I was trying to learn the useful lesson of setting aside self
that I might add to the happiness of others, especially of the kind
friend, beneath whose roof I dwelt. It was my invariable custom on my
way to school to call each morning for Willie and Rose Oswald. We became
great friends, and many evenings did I carry over my books, that we
might together study the lesson for the morning's recitation;