y faulty. It
must be re-written this afternoon, and both lessons learned so that you
can recite them creditably to me before I can allow you any recreation."

"I don't care," she said with a pout and a frown, "I just have too much
to do, and that's all there is about it."

"My child, are you speaking quite as respectfully as you ought in
addressing your father?" he asked in grave, reproving accents.

She hung her head in sullen silence.

He waited a moment, then said with some sternness, "When I ask you a
question, Lucilla, I expect an answer, and it must be given."

"No, sir; it wasn't respectful," she replied penitently. "But please
forgive me, papa, I hope I'll never speak so again."

He drew her to him and kissed her tenderly. "I do, dear child. But now I
must know what you mean by saying that you have too much to do."

"It's that sewing for the Dorcas society, papa, beside all my lessons and
practising, and other things that you bid me do every day."

"Then you must undertake less of it, or none at all; for as I have said
before, your lessons are of much more importance. I can pay some one to
work for the poor, but my little girl's stock of knowledge must be
increased, and her mind improved by her own efforts."

"I don't want to give it up, papa; because it would be mortifying to
have it said I couldn't do as much as the other girls."

"You seem to be doing charitable work from a very poor motive," he
remarked in a tone of grave concern.

"Papa, that isn't my only motive," she replied, hanging her head and
blushing. "I do want to please the Lord Jesus and to be kind and
helpful to the poor."

"I am glad to hear it; but you must be willing to undertake less if you
can not do so much without neglecting other, and more important duties.
Did you bring home an extra quantity of work from the last meeting of
your society?"

"No, sir," and she blushed again as she spoke, "but I--I kept putting
off doing it because there was always something else I wanted to do--a
story to read, or a game to play, or a bit of carving, or something
pleasanter than sewing--till Grace reminded me there was only one day
left, and then I hurried over my lessons and composition and worked as
hard and fast as I could at the sewing."

"Ah," he said, "it is an old and very true saying that 'Procrastination
is the thief of time.' The only way to accomplish much in this world is
to have a time for each duty, and always attend to it at