Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/224

 instance of either; and though she did not wish that her children should be idle, obstreperous, disobedient, and self-willed, she effectually formed them to those habits, and then took credit to herself for being one of the best of mothers!

Mrs Mason had discernment enough to see how much pride there was in that pretended contentment, which constantly repelled every idea of improvement. She saw that though Mrs MacClarty took no pains to teach her children what was truly useful, she encouraged, with respect to them, an undefined sentiment of ambition, which persuaded her, that her children were born to rise to something great, and that they would in time overtop their neighbours. Mrs Mason saw the unhappy effects which this would infallibly produce, upon minds brought up in ignorance; she therefore resolved to do all in her power to obviate the consequences; and from the opinion she had formed of the farmer's sense and principles, had no