Ha-ha! But what a little
crab it is!"
"Don't be too sure of that. People may have other designs."
"Bessie's can't be anything but trumpery."
"Sometimes present trumpery is a step to something better. 'A was an
Archer' is not very wise, but it is the road to reading--and even if
it were not so, Sam, it is not right to shame people into giving; for
what is not bestowed for the true reasons, does no good to giver nor
to receiver.
Sam looked up with a frown of attention, as if he were trying to take
in the new light; but he did take it in, and smacking his hands
together with a noise like a pistol-shot, said, "Ay, that's it! We
don't want what is grudged."
Miss Fosbrook thought of words that would another time be more
familiar to Sam. "Not grudgingly, nor of necessity, for God loveth a
cheerful giver."
What she said was, "You see, if you plague Bessie too much, to make
her like ourselves, when she is really so different, you are driving
her to the shamming you despise so much."
"But ought not she to be cured of being silly?"
"When we have quite made up our minds upon what silliness is.
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