"
"Yes, my dear; a real trouble makes us ashamed of our little
discontents."
"I said so many times yesterday, and the day before, that I would
never mind things again, if only Mamma would get well and come home,"
said the little girl; "and I never shall."
"You will not always find it easy not to mind," said Christabel; "but
if you try hard, you will learn how to keep from showing that you
mind."
"Oh!" said Elizabeth, (and a great mouthful of an oh! it was,) "those
things are grown so silly and little now."
"You have seen them in their true light for once, my dear. And now
that you have so great cause of thankfulness to God, you feel that
your foolish frets and discontents were unthankful."
"Yes," said Bessie, her eyes cast down, as they always were when
anything of this kind was said to her, as if she did not like to meet
the look fixed on her.
"Well then, Bessie, try to make the giving up of these murmurs your
thank-offering to God. Suppose every day when you say your prayers,
you were to add something like this--" and she wrote down on a little
bit of paper, "O Thou, who hast raised up my mother from her
sickness, teach me to be a thankful and contented child, and to guard
my words and thoughts from peevishness.
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