“He was a very pretty boy.  He had bright blue eyes and curling hair.  He was a very good boy, too.  He did not like to do any thing wrong.  He always found that it made him feel uncomfortable and unhappy afterwards when he did any thing wrong.  A good many children, especially good children, find that it makes them feel uncomfortable and unhappy when they do wrong.  Perhaps you do.”

“Yes, mamma, I do,” said Louisa.

“I am glad of that,” replied her mother; “that is a good sign.”

“Ernest went one day,” added the mother, continuing her story, “with his little cousin Anna to their uncle’s, in hopes that he would give them some apples.  Their uncle had a beautiful garden, and in it there was an apple-tree which bore most excellent apples.  They were large, and rosy, and mellow, and sweet.  The children liked the apples from that tree very much, and Ernest and Anna went that day in hopes that their uncle would give them some of them.  He said he would.  He would give them three apiece.  He told them to go into the garden and wait there until he came.  They must not take any apples off the tree, he said, but if they found any under the tree they might take them, provided that there were not more than three apiece; and when he came he would take enough off the tree, he said, to make up the number to three.

“So the children went into the garden and looked under the tree.  They found two apples there, and they took them up and ate them—­one apiece.  Then they sat down and began to wait for their uncle to come.  While they were waiting Anna proposed that they should not tell their uncle that they had found the two apples, and so he would give them three more, which he would take from the tree; whereas, if he knew that they had already had one apiece, then he would only give them two more.  Ernest said that his uncle would ask them about it.  Anna said, ’No matter, we can tell him that we did not find any.’

“Ernest seemed to be thinking about it for a moment, and then, shaking his head, said, ‘No, I think we had better not tell him a lie!’

“So when he saw their uncle coming he said, ’Come, Anna, let us go and tell him about it, just how it was.  So they ran together to meet their uncle, and told him that they had found two apples under the tree, one apiece, and had eaten them.  Then he gave them two more apiece, according to his promise, and they went home feeling contented and happy.

“They might have had one more apple apiece, probably, by combining together to tell a falsehood; but in that case they would have gone home feeling guilty and unhappy.”

The Effect.

Louisa’s mother paused a moment, after finishing her story, to give Louisa time to think about it a little.

“I think,” she added at length, after a suitable pause, “that it was a great deal better for them to tell the truth, as they did.”

“I think so too, mamma,” said Louisa, at the same time casting down her eyes and looking a little confused.