noon, I
will tell you what it is."

"O yes, I know she will," replied Mary. "Indeed, yesterday, I should not
have thought of asking her; but now, after what I have heard from your
lips, I shall not do anything, or go anywhere, without asking her
consent."

"I am glad," responded Mrs. Spaulding, "that you remember this lesson so
well. Now, Mary, you had better go home; and may neither of you ever
think otherwise than seriously, of the divine command, to 'honor thy
father and thy mother;' and remember that few persons have ever come to
harm when they grew up, who in their youth obeyed it."

UNCHARITABLE JUDGMENT.

CONVERSATION II.

"Cast out the beam from thine own eye, then shalt thou see clearly to
cast the mote out of thy brother's eye."

Mary's mother cheerfully gave her leave to go home with Clara, the next
day. She knew and highly esteemed Mrs. Spaulding, and was very glad that
her daughter should be intimate with her family.

Mrs. Spaulding greeted the girls with a smile and a kind word; then
said, "Mary, you began last evening to make a remark about Emma
Woodbury. Will you tell me what you were going to say?"

"Certainly," replied Mary; "I was going to say that Emma scarcely ever
asked the advice of her mother, or her consent to do anything or go
anywhere; and I know a great many girls who act in the same way."

"And I," added Clara, "intended to say that Jane Clifton's mother was
one of those whom you spoke of, as never conversing with children in a
rational and reasoning manner."

"I guessed as much," said Mrs. Spaulding. "I told you," she continued,
"there was another point upon which I wished to say a few words to you.
Can you think what it is?"

"I cannot," said Mary. "Nor I either," said Clara; "certainly, I see no
harm in the words we uttered."

"True," responded Mrs. Spaulding, "there was no harm. It was not the
words you spoke, but the tone in which they were spoken, that attracted
my attention; as if you were _glad_ to be able to point out somebody to
whom the reproof could be applied. This failing is a common one, and our
Savior may have had it in view, when he said to his followers, on the
mount, 'Cast out the beam from thine own eye; and then shalt thou see
clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye.' My object now, my
dear children, is to caution you against a failing, which is almost
universal, namely, of seeing distinctly and reproving faults in others,
while we appea