loss of the milk, and what would follow when she went home, gave her
more trouble than the injury she had received from the naughty girl.

"I don't know what I shall do," said she, beginning to cry again, as she
thought of her mother.

"Do? you can't do any thing--can you? The milk is gone, and all you have
to do is to go home," replied Ben.

"What will my mother say?"

"No matter what she says, if she don't whip you or send you to bed
without your supper."

"She won't whip me, and I have been to supper."

"Then what are you crying about?"

"Mother says I am very careless; and I know I am," whined Kate.

"Don't be a baby, Kate."

"I spoiled a flower this afternoon, and mother scolded me and shook me
for it. She told me to be very careful with this milk, and now I have
spilled the whole of it."

"Well, if you feel so bad, why need you tell her any thing about it?"

"About what?" asked Kate, looking up into his face, for she did not
quite understand him.

"You needn't tell her you spilled the milk. She will never find it out."

"But she will ask me."

"What if she does? Can't you tell her you gave the milk to the old
woman, and that she was very much obliged to her for sending it?"

"I can do that," said Kate.

She did not like the plan, but it seemed to her just then that any thing
would be better than telling her mother that she had spilled the milk;
and, wicked as it was, she resolved to do it.

[Illustration: CRYING FOR SPILLED MILK.]

III.

Kate did not think of the poor woman and her hungry children when she
made up her mind to tell her mother such a monstrous lie.

She did not think how very wicked it was to deceive her mother, just to
escape, perhaps, a severe rebuke for her carelessness.

She felt all the time that she was doing wrong, but she tried so hard
to cover it up, that her conscience was not permitted to do its whole
duty.

When we are tempted to do wrong, something within us tells us not to do
it; but we often struggle to get rid of this feeling, and if we succeed
the first time, it is easier the next time. And the more we do wrong,
the easier it becomes to put down the little voice within us.

It was so with Kate. She had told falsehoods before, or it would not
have been so easy for her to do it this time. If we do not take care of
our consciences, as we do of our caps and bonnets, they are soon
spoiled.

Did you ever notice that one of the wheels on your little