en," Mr. Eberstein
remarked.

"Emulation will do it, if a girl has any spirit," said Mrs. Thayer.

"What sort of spirit?"

"What sort of spirit! Why, the spirit not to let themselves be outdone;
to stand as high as anybody, and higher; be No. 1, and carry off the
first honours. A spirited girl don't like to be No. 2. Christina will
never be No. 2."

"Is it quite certain that such a spirit is the one to be cultivated?"

"It makes them study,"--said Mrs. Thayer, looking at her questioner to
see what he meant.

"What do you think the Bible means, when it tells us not to seek for
honour?"

"_Not_ to seek for honour?" repeated the lady.

"Not the honour that comes from man."

"I didn't know it forbade it. I never heard that it was forbidden. Why,
Mr. Eberstein, it is _natural_ to wish for honour. Everybody wishes for
it."

"So they do," Mr. Eberstein assented. "I might say, so _we_ do."

"It is natural," repeated the lady.

"Its being natural does not prove it to be right."

"Why, Mr. Eberstein, if it is _natural_, we cannot help it."

"How then does trying to be No. 1 agree with the love that 'seeketh not
her own'?"

Dolly was listening earnestly, Mr. Eberstein saw. Mrs. Thayer
hesitated, in some inward disgust.

"Do you take that literally?" she said then. "How can you take it
literally? You cannot."

"But Christ pleased not Himself."

"Well, but He was not like us."

"We are bidden to be like him, though."

"Oh, as far as we can. But you cannot press those words literally, Mr.
Eberstein."

"As far as we can? I _must_ press them, for the Bible does. I ask no
more, and the Lord demands no more, than that we be like our Master _as
far as we can_. And He 'pleased not himself,' and 'received not honour
from men.'"

"If you were to preach such doctrine in schools, I am afraid you would
have very bad recitations."

"Well!" said Mr. Eberstein. "Better bad recitations than bad hearts.
Though really there is no necessary connection between my premises and
your conclusion. The Bible reckons 'emulations,' Mrs. Thayer, in the
list of the worst things human nature knows, and does."

"Then you would have a set of dunces. I should just like to be told,
Mr. Eberstein, how on that principle you would get young people to
study. In the case of girls you cannot do it by beating; nor in the
case of boys, after they have got beyond being little boys. Then
emulation comes in, and they work like beavers to get th