Sometimes it seemed to Christabel that the habit of spiting Bessie
was getting so confirmed, that it would last even when the cause was
forgotten; and yet the more she strove to put it down in sight, the
more it throve out of sight; and when she looked at David, and
thought how she had once admired him, she could not but remember the
text that says, "Thy goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the dew
shall it vanish away." She had thought it goodness based upon
religious feeling, as well as on natural gravity and orderliness; and
so perhaps it had once been, but the little fellow had fixed his
whole soul on one purpose, and though that was a good one, it had
grown into an idol, and swallowed up all his other motives, till of
late he had only been good for the sake of the pig, not because it
was right. Being disappointed of the pig, he had nothing to fall
back upon, but felt himself so ill-used, that it seemed to him that
it was no use to be good; and he revenged himself by naughtiness.
Such sturdy strong characters as little David's, when they are once
set on the right object, come to the very best kind of goodness; but
when they take a wrong turn, they are the very worst, both for
themselves and others.
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