“And do you think being turned away from Farmer Tomkyns’s will help to cure these faults?”

“No,” answered Ned; “I do not suppose it will.”

“On the contrary, is it not likely that he will grow more idle, and get oftener into mischief, when he has no master to look after him, and nothing to do all day long but play about the streets?”

“Why, yes, that is true.  Still, it will serve him right to be turned away.  I have heard Mr. Harris, our rector, say that those who do wrong ought to be punished.”

“Pray, Ned,” asked his grandmother, “can you tell me what is the use of punishment?”

“The use of punishment!—­” repeated Ned, thoughtfully.  “Let me think.  The use of punishment, I believe, is to make people better.”

“Right.  Now, Ned, you have allowed that Tom’s being turned away is not likely to make him better, but worse; so that I am afraid the true reason why you rejoice at his disgrace is because you bear resentment against him, for having been ill-natured to yourself.  Think a minute, and tell me if this is not the case.”

Ned owned that his grandmother was right; and then observed, “It is very difficult not to bear ill-will against any one who has done us wrong.”

“Yet,” rejoined his grandmother, “it is our duty to pardon those who have injured us.  St. Paul says, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, ’Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.’  And our blessed Saviour has commanded us to ‘love our enemies,’ to ’do good to them that hate us, and to pray for those that despitefully use us, and persecute us.’  If you will look at the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the sixth chapter of St. Matthew, you will see what else our Lord says on the subject.”

Ned took the Bible, and having found the place, read, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:  but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.”

“Before you go to bed,” said his grandmother, when he had finished reading, “I wish you to get by heart these three texts, and repeat them to me.”

Ned did as he was desired, and then his grandmother kissed him, and bid him good-night.

Ned loved his grandmother very much, for she had always been kind to him.  His parents had both died when he was very young; and she then brought him home to live with her, and had taken care of him ever since.  She taught him to read and write, and cast up sums; to be steady and industrious; and, above all, it was her great care to instil into his mind religious principles.  She had often told him that the way to profit by what we read, as well as by the good advice that may be given us, is to think upon it afterwards; and she frequently desired him to make a practice of saying over to himself every night whatever verses from the Bible he had learnt by heart during the day.