er feverish countenance, and felt her throbbing pulse, he said
there was something upon her stomach which must be removed. As he was
preparing the nauseous emetic, the conscience-smitten girl trembled
for fear that her disobedience and her falsehood should both be
brought to light. As soon as the emetic operated, her mother saw, in
the half-chewed fragments of green apples, the cause of her sickness.
What could the unhappy and guilty girl say? Denial was now, of
course, out of the question. She could only cover her face with her
hands, in the vain attempt to hide her shame. We hope that this
detection and mortification will teach that little girl a lesson
which she will never forget. And we hope that the relation of the
story will induce every child, who reads it, to guard against
temptation, and boldly to resist every allurement to sin. Temptations
will be continually coming, which you will find it hard to resist.
But if you once yield, you have entered that downward path which
leads inevitably to sorrow and shame. How much wiser would it have
been in the little girl, whose story we have just related, if she had
in the first instance resolutely refused to disobey her mother's
command! How much happier would she have been, when retiring to sleep
at night, if she had the joy of an approving conscience, and could,
with a grateful heart, ask the blessing of God! The only path of
safety and happiness is implicit obedience. If you, in the slightest
particular, yield to temptation, and do that which you know to be
wrong, you will not know when or where to stop. To hide one crime,
you will be guilty of another; and thus you will draw down upon
yourself the frown of your Maker, and expose yourself to sorrow for
time and eternity.

And think not that these temptations to do wrong will be few or
feeble. Hardly a day will pass in which you will not be tempted,
either through indolence to neglect your duty, or to do that which
you know your parents will disapprove. A few years ago, two little
boys went to pass the afternoon and evening at the house of one of
their playmates, who had a party, to celebrate his birth-day. Their
parents told them to come home at eight o'clock in the evening. It
was a beautiful afternoon, late in the autumn, as the large party of
boys assembled at the house of their friend. Numerous barns and
sheds were attached to the house, and a beautiful grove of beach and
of oak surrounded it, affording a most del