trile to let a child say to you 'no I won't,' even if it is so young as scarcely to be able to speak the words; for that no I won't' may grow into all kinds of disobedience, and cause many a heavy sigh from the mother'sheart.

Nelly. Then I was right to make Sally stay at home, after I had once told her that. she should.

Tacy. No, Nelly, you did very wrong to think of keeping her from learning to serve her Creator, and to understand the way by which her soul must be saved; but when you had been so thoughtless as to do so, and then felt that you were out of the way of your duty, you might have told her that you would take back your word, because you thought that she would be made better by going to Sunday school.

Nelly. Yes, if I had thought so; but from being a self-willed and perverse child, she became as good a one as I could wish, without going to Sunday school I had no trouble with her; and even when she was in the midst of reading one of the books which Sam used to bring home to her, she would put it

away without a cross look when I bid er, and do any thing that I wished.

Tacy. Well, Nelly, I will venture to say, that what she learned at Sunday school the short time that you let her go, and what she heard from Samuel that he l'arned there, was the cause of the change in her behaviour

to you.

Nelly. It is of no use to talk with you, Tacy, of Sunday schools, for you have such great notions about the good they do.

Tacy. Yes, Nelly; my heart is glad when

I think of the day when they began. What could the fondest mother wish better for ber

child, than to have it taught the way to heaven? but how can any father or mother hope to excuse themselves for disregarding the gracious command of the Saviour of sinners, "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not?"

Nelly. When you come upon me with the Bible, Tacy, I must stop I suppose. Tacy. What else than the command of God, Nelly, could I name to show you your duty?

Nelly. Well this is not the kind of talk to have at a quilting.

Tacy. Useful talk, I know, is not the kind common at quiltings, because we forget that we are to give an account of our idle words. The last one that I was at, was when I was on a visit to my niece, who lives, you know, in a clever sized town; well, I suppose there was scarcely a family, high or low, in the town, that I did not hear something of, that would make a stranger think ill of them. I felt at last that it was my duty to try to make the talkers think of the sinfulness of such speaking; and I opened a Bible which

lay on a table near me, and read aloud the ninth commandment. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."

Nancy Ridly. But, Tacy, that command. has nothing to do with telling things that are true, even if they are evil.

Tacy. Jesus Christ taught us, Nancy, how to understand the commandments; and he said, that to "love God with all our heart, and our neighbours as ourselves," is the right, and indeed only, way to keep them; and I think you will own that there is neither love to God, or to our neighbours, in telling evil tales, even if they are true ones.

Nancy. I did not say it was right to do so, but that it is not bearing false witness.

Tacy. Suppose, Nancy, you had been telling some evil thing of an acquaintance; or of some wrong thing which you knew was done in their family, and then, when you met that acquaintance, you were to speak in a friendly manner to her; surely you would be acting falsely, and would deserve the sentence of the heart-searching God, "Thou Hypocrite."

Margaret Bates. But what are we to talk about?

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Tacy. If we must talk of our neighbours, let us try to practise that charity which "thinketh no evil;" and if we do know evil of them, let us hope all things;" that is, that they will be turned from their evil ways. And however we may deceive ourselves, it is certain, that if we practise speaking ill of others, it is because we have some malice in our heart which " rejoiceth in iniquity."

Betsy Wilts. You think too hardly, Tacy,

of talk that means no harm.

Tacy. Read what the apostle James says about the tongue, Betsey, and the harm which it can do; and remember, that when the tongue utters evil, it is the "bitter water" which comes from the fountain of the heart," and it proves that heart is "not right before God.”

Nelly Tilson. Well, I see you are affronted, Tacy, because I did not crack up your favourite, Jane Lee; but go as it will, I shall rot humour her pride by letting my chil