y she took for her subject
with us boys, the sin of envy and its consequences, and the best means
of conquering it. I can remember to this hour the different
illustrations--Cain, and Saul, and the blood-thirsty Pharisees on the
one side; and Moses, and David, and Jonathan, and Paul, on the other;
and the verses we found out in Proverbs and in the Epistles: they
perhaps did me some good at the time, but my heart was not really
touched. I had not found out, in my own little personal experience, what
my father meant by the _Fountain opened for all uncleanness_, and there
were bitter but necessary lessons still in store for me.

CHAPTER V.

SHIP-BUILDING.

My story would grow too long were I to tell of all the employments,
amusements, and adventures, which made the months fly rapidly by with us
boys that summer and autumn long ago at Braycombe.

My cousin's companionship made me more than usually diligent in my
studies, and more than usually eager in my amusements; whilst the
watchful care of my parents seemed to screen me from many of the minor
trials and temptations which might otherwise have rendered me less happy
than I had been in former days.

I can remember now with admiration, how carefully they measured out
even-handed justice to my cousin and myself. They never seemed to forget
that they had promised Aleck should be as my brother, therefore every
arrangement took us equally into account. And although the meanness of
envy was held by them to be not only sinful, but contemptible, they were
quite alive to the keen sense of justice which is born with most
children, and would never violate it by the exercise of a partiality too
common amongst those who have the charge of the young, either with the
object of giving me as their child some special pleasure, or Aleck as
our visitor some special indulgence.

It was not long after the Stavemoor expedition that I was allowed to try
my horsemanship by mounting the gray. Rickson was on the alert; but had
it not been for his interposition, my equestrian pursuits would have
come to a very disastrous ending. I was convinced against my will of the
wisdom of my father's decision, that I should for the present be content
with my pony; relying, for consolation, on his promise that, before very
long, I should learn to manage the more spirited animal. In the meantime
I no longer felt it a trouble that my cousin's superior skill in this
respect should be recognized.

Ale