CHAPTER XIV
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX TEACHERS.
CHAPTER XIV.
Tue reason Susy's mamma said that was this, Susy was very apt to think herself worse than other children, and when she fancied herself very bad, she almost always grew bad.
She would think there was no use in trying to be good, and as soon as she stopped trying, why it was very easy to be naughty.
The next day Susy was invited to spend with Charlie and Frank.
It was Saturday, and Frank was to be at home from school.
When she woke in the morning Mr. Ought said to her:
" Now, Susy, God has taken care of you all night.
Kneel down and thank him, the very first thing you do."
"J don't think God can hear me very well," said Susy.
"There are a great many folks praying to him.
I guess I'd better wait till by and by. He won't be so busy by and by."
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"Oh! he can hear you just as well now," said the little angel Faith.
"T don't believe it," said Susy. "And I want to go down and get my breakfast."
Susy ran downstairs, and, as she had neelected her dear Father in heaven, it was not strange that she now was so careless as not to bid her grandmamma good-morning.
But her grandmamma was too much like Mrs.
Love to find fault with Susy.
She only said in a pleasant voice :
"Susy has forgotten her grandma, hasn't she 2"
After breakfast Susy went to walk with Robbie and nurse, and on the way home they left her at her aunty's.
Frank and Charlie had been watching for her some time, and they both ran down to meet her, and Frank kissed her over and over, and kept saying he wished she was his little sister.
Then they all went up into the nursery, and Charlie showed Susy all his toys and books.
Susie liked to lie flat on the floor and look at books, and as soon as she found how many there
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX TEACHERS.
were, she threw herself down and began to look at the pictures.
After awhile Charlie said:
"Come, Susy, let's go out and play now."
"Oh! no, I wouldn't," said Susy.
Charlie waited, and waited, At last he got quite out of patience.
"JT don't like girls," said he.
"They never do anything you want them to."
Susy took no notice of what he said, but kept on turning over the books.
"You can't have my books any longer," he said at last.
He began to gather them up, and to put them away in his bookcase.
Susy did not care, so long as he left her the book at which she was looking; but when he tried to take that, she held on fast, and he began to pull it very hard to get it away.
He was stronger than Susy, and in a minute or two he had the book in his hands.
But one cover was nearly torn off.
" Now you've spoiled my book," said Frank.
"You have just spoiled it."
"Tt was Charlie, pulling it away from me," said Susy.
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"It was Susy, holding on so," said Charlie.
"T did not know it was your book, though.
I thought it was mine.
But I don't ¢are."
"T don't care, either," said Susy.
"Tl make you care, then," said Frank, who was by this time quite angry.
And he leaned over and slapped them with the cover they had torn off.
'The moment he had done it he ran to his mother and told her what had happened.
"You struck your little cousin, and your little brother ?" said his mother, hardly able to believe him.
"Yes, Idid.
And I feel better for it," said Frank.
His mother was astonished.
"Why, Frank," said she, "if any one else had told me this I would not have believed it."
"They provoked me so!" said Frank.
"If they hadn't said they didn't care, I shouldn't have been so angry.
But after they had torn my book they said they didn't care."
"Tf they had been grown up it would have been wrong for you to do as you did," said his mother.
"But as they are only foolish little
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children, not yet four years old, you hve behaved ridiculously and done wrong beside."
Frank began to agree with his mother.
"T'll go back and make up with them," said he.
"They both sit there crying on the floor.
I am sorry I struck them."
"That's right !" said his mother.
So Frank ran back to the nursery and told Susy he was sorry he had hurt her; and Susy said it was no matter, and Charlie said it would take more than Frank to hurt him, and so by degrees they forgave each other, and that was the end of their quarrel.
When Susy was going to bed that night she said to Mr. Ought: "I have been rather naughty to-day.
But I mean to be rather good to-mor. row, if you only will be kind to me, and not keep saying 'Susy' all the time."
"Tf you had obeyed me yesterday about the plum, all your trouble would have been over then.
But you would not give Robbie one when you had three," said Mr. Ought.
"Oh! I was afraid it would hurt him," said Susy.
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"No, that was not the reason."
"Yes, it was."
Mr. Ought was silent.
Susy knelt down to say her prayers, but they did not comfort her.
Presently Mr. Ought said: "The reason you kept all the plums was that you loved little
Susy better than you loved little Robbie. And as you would not listen to me then, you found it hard to listen to me this morning.
And so you were very selfish at your Aunty's, and made Frank so angry.
You see how it is.
If you disobey me once you will find it easy to disobey me again."
"T haven't had a very good time to-day," said Susy.
"I have not seen Miss Joy once. I think I'm a pretty bad child."
"No little girl ever became good in a minute," said Aunt Patience.
"But I want to," said Susy.
"Ask God to help you," said Faith.
"And then He will let me help you," said Aunt Patience.
"Well!" said Susy, "I will turn over a new iaaf to-morrow."