er, and put her arms round her.

Lucy began to cry more.

"Oh, mamma, mamma! dear mamma!" she said, "I don't know what vexes me,
or why I have been crying."

"Are you speaking the truth?" said Mrs. Fairchild. "Do not hide
anything from me. Is there anything in your heart, my dear child, do
you think, which makes you unhappy?"

"Indeed, mamma," said Lucy, "I think there is. I am sorry that Emily
has got that pretty doll. Pray do not hate me for it, mamma; I know it
is wicked in me to be sorry that Emily is happy, but I feel that I
cannot help it."

"My dear child," said Mrs. Fairchild, "I am glad you have confessed
the truth to me. Now I will tell you why you feel so unhappy, and I
will tell you where to seek a cure. The naughty passion you now feel,
my dear, is what is called Envy. Envy makes persons unhappy when they
see others happier or better than themselves. Envy is in every man's
heart by nature. Some people can hide it more than others, and others
have been enabled, by God's grace, to overcome it in a great degree;
but, as I said before, it is in the natural heart of all mankind.
Little children feel envious about dolls and playthings, and men and
women feel envious about greater things."

"Do you ever feel envious, mamma?" said Lucy. "I never saw you unhappy
because other people had better things than you had."

"My heart, my dear child," answered Mrs. Fairchild, "is no better than
yours. There was a time when I was very envious. When I was first
married I had no children for seven or eight years; I wished very much
to have a baby, as you wished just now for Emily's doll; and whenever I
saw a woman with a pretty baby in her arms, I was ready to cry for
vexation."

"Do you ever feel any envy now, mamma?" said Lucy.

"I cannot say that I never feel it, my dear; but I bless God that this
wicked passion has not the power over me which it used to have."

"Oh, mamma, mamma!" said Lucy, "how unhappy wickedness makes us! I have
been very miserable this morning; and what for? only because of the
naughtiness of my heart, for I have had nothing else to make me
miserable."

Then Mrs. Fairchild took Lucy by the hand, and went into her closet,
where they prayed that the Holy Spirit would take the wicked passion of
envy out of Lucy's heart. And as they prayed in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross to deliver us from the power of
sin, they did not doubt but that God would hear their prayer;