d received from the
naughty girl.

"I don't know what I shall do," said she, beginning to cry again,
as she thought of her mother.

"Do? you can't do anything--can you? The milk is gone, and all you
have to do is to go home," replied Ben.

"What will my mother say?"

"No matter what she says, if she don't whip you or send you to bed
without your supper."

"She won't whip me, and I have been to supper."

"Then what are you crying about?"

"Mother says I am very careless; and I know I am," whined Kate.

"Don't be a baby, Kate."

"I spoiled a flower this afternoon, and mother scolded me and shook
me for it. She told me to be very careful with this milk, and now I
have spilled the whole of it."

"Well, if you feel so bad, why need you tell her anything about
it?"

"About what?" asked Kate, looking up into his face, for she did not
quite understand him.

"You needn't tell her you spilled the milk. She will never find it
out."

"But she will ask me."

"What if she does? Can't you tell her you gave the milk to the old
woman, and that she was very much obliged to her for sending it?"

"I can do that," said Kate.

She did not like the plan, but it seemed to her just then that
anything would be better than telling her mother that she had
spilled the milk; and, wicked as it was, she resolved to do it.

[Illustration: Crying for spilled milk.]

III.

Kate did not think of the poor woman and her hungry children when
she made up her mind to tell her mother such a monstrous lie.

She did not think how very wicked it was to deceive her mother,
just to escape, perhaps, a severe rebuke for her carelessness.

She felt all the time that she was doing wrong, but she tried so
hard to cover it up, that her conscience was not permitted to do
its whole duty.

When we are tempted to do wrong, something within us tells us not
to do it; but we often struggle to get rid of this feeling, and if
we succeed the first time, it is easier the next time. And the more
we do wrong, the easier it becomes to put down the little voice
within us.

It was so with Kate. She had told falsehoods before, or it would
not have been so easy for her to do it this time. If we do not take
care of our consciences, as we do of our caps and bonnets, they are
soon spoiled.

Did you ever notice that one of the wheels on your little wagon,
when it becomes loose, soon wears out? The more it sags over on one
side, the weaker it grows. W