Andy told about Frank. I know, too, what covet is; for mother Hester said Elsy coveted, because she wanted her thread, and yeast, and chalk. I am glad I do not covet; it is so ugly." As she said this, Rover came and laid his head on her lap to be patted; and Ruth recollected how crossly she had spoken to him the day before, and how angry she had been, because Reuben had given to him the piece of bread instead of offering it to her. "Poor fellow," said she, as she patted his head, "did I want your dinner? that was"-she was going to say, "not good;" but her eye rested on the bit of leaf which she held in one hand, and she said "that was coveting." Rover was not quiet long, and when he left Ruth, she sat for some time looking at the words on the bit of leaf, and at last she said, "if mother knew about yesterday, she would say I was like Elsy Dinby." She felt pleased that mother did not know; but then the thought came that her heavenly Father did know, and with a feeling of shame, she said, "I wish I had not behaved so." She laid down the paper, and

took up another bit, and read on it, "Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even

And the

as this Publican. I fast twice in a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." Ruth often heard Hester call people 'sinners,'

when she was telling of what they did, that was not right; she could not understand what Pharisee or Publican meant, except that they were two men who were praying. As she sat thinking about it, she said, “one man must have been proud, to think himself better than any body; and the other must have been doing what was bad, for he said he was a sinner, and he was sorry, I suppose, and so said, God be merciful to me a sinner.' I did what God said I must not; I coveted Rover's dinner, and I am sorry, and so I will ask God as the man did."

Ruth slipped from her seat to her knees, and repeated the prayer of the publican. As she repeated the last word, Reuben came to her, and hearing it, said, "sinner, Ruth?" "Yes," said she, "because I coveted; and that was doing what our Father who art in heaven' said we must not do, and I have asked him please to forgive me." Reuben and Ruth knew what forgive meant, because once when they both expected to be beat by Hester for something they had done, she said

I will forgive you this time;" and they

were so rejoiced at escaping, that they never forgot what forgive meant.

When Ruth rose from kneeling, she felt quite light-hearted, because she believed that God heard her wish and would forgive her. It was time to wet the linen, and when `she had done it, Reuben and she shared their dinners with Rover, and Reuben, as usual, laid down to sleep. Ruth thought she would get a leaf of those which she had put at the roots of the tree; she chose two which were fast together, and sat down to read them. At the top of the first one was the fifty-second verse of the twenty-second chapter of Luke; the beginning of the chapter was on a leaf that she had not brought out of the closet. The last that Ruth had read about Jesus, was his raising to life the son of the widow of Nain; and what she now read was what Jesus said, 'Be ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves ?' This surprised her, for she only thought of him as 'the Lord,' whom every one should love. She read on with great, attention and felt her anger rising when she read, And the men

that held Jesus, mocked him and smote him.' But when she came to the thirty-third verse

6

of the next chapter, and read, They crucified him,' she laid the leaf down to wipe off the tears which covered her cheeks. She knew that crucified' meant to put him to death, because she had read in the verses above, that Herod had said, 'I have found no cause of death in him,' but that the people had then cried 'crucify him.' When Ruth had wiped the tears from her eyes, she went to Reuben to tell him what she had read; he was playing at the spring, and she said, "let me tell you, Reuben, about the good Jesus

L