Page:Original stories from real life 1796.pdf/110

Rh as you have treated Betty, who is ten years older than yourſelf, improperly, you muſt now do every thing for yourſelf; and, as you will be ſome time about it, Caroline and I will eat our breakfaſt, and viſit Mrs. Trueman. By the time we return, you may perhaps have recollected that children are inferior to ſervants, who act from the dictates of reaſon, and whoſe underſtandings are arrived at ſome degree of maturity, while children muſt be governed and directed till their's gains ſtrength to work by itſelf: for it is the proper exerciſe of our reaſon that makes us in any degree independent.

When Mrs. Maſon returned, ſhe mildly addreſſed Mary. I have often told you that every diſpenſation of Providence tended to our improvement, if we do not perverſely act contrary to our intereſt. One being is made dependent on another, that love and forbearance may ſoften the human heart, and that linked together by neceſſity, and the exerciſe of the ſocial affections, the whole family on earth might have a fellow- Rh