"
"Would you not rather have stayed down-stairs to play to-day?"
"Oh, yes," said Annie; "only----"
"Only what, my dear?"
"Annie means that you were sick, and didn't want us to make a noise; and,
really, we did try to play just as still as we possibly could."
"Why did you take so much pains to be quiet?"
"You told us to be still, didn't you, mother?"
"I did; but were you afraid I would punish you if you made a noise, Susie?"
"Oh, no, indeed; but we did not want to make you sick," said Susie,
clinging to her mother, and looking into her face with her loving eyes.
"Then you love your mother, do you, girls?"
"Indeed we do," said the children, in one breath.
"Well, supposing your mother had been well, and some poor sick woman, whom
you had never seen before, lay here sick in my bed: would it have been more
pleasant _then_ for you to be very still, so as not to disturb her?"
The girls hesitated a moment, and then Annie said,--
"I think it would, mother; for it would be very cruel to make anybody
suffer, I have heard you say."
"Then you could love a poor stranger enough to deny yourself some of your
own pleasures for her sake; and you think it would make you happier to do
so, do you?"
"Oh, yes, I am sure we should be happier," said little Susie.
"Well, my dear children, I cannot talk any longer now, but I want you to
repeat this little verse after me until you can remember it:--
"Love is the golden chain that binds
The happy souls above;
And he's an heir of heaven that finds
His bosom glow with _love_.
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