ound to do to you what you have no right to require of me. We have all
a perfect right to request of each other whatever is perfectly conducive
to our welfare and happiness, provided it does not improperly infringe
upon that of the person of whom the request is made. You trespass upon
_my rights_ when you attempt to pry into my private affairs."

"Mercy, Helen! don't preach any more. I guess I'm not the only
meddlesome person in the world. One half the people I know need nothing
more to make them take all possible pains to learn about a thing than to
know the person whom it concerns wishes it kept secret. But where have
you been, pray? and what have you in that bundle?" and Caroline tore off
the paper cover from the package which Helen had laid upon the table.

"Caroline," said the mother of the two young girls, "why do you not wait
to see whether your sister is willing for you to open her package? From
your tone, my dear, one would judge that you were appointed to
cross-question Helen, and had a right to be angry if she declined
explaining all her motives and intentions to you."

"For pity's sake! mother, haven't I a right to ask my sister all the
questions I please? I tell her everything I do, and I think she might
show the same confidence in me."

"You have a right, my daughter, to ask any proper question of any one;
but it is unmannerly to ask too particularly about things that do not
concern you; or to speak _at all_ respecting a thing which you see that
another desires should pass unobserved. It shows a small and vulgar mind
to seek to pry into the affairs of another, unless there be some great
necessity for doing so. Never press a matter where there is a
disposition to be reserved upon the subject. Be refined, my child;
remember that courtesy is as much a command of the Bible as is honesty.
I have often heard you, my thoughtless Carrie, mention impatiently the
annoying habits of one who is often here. You have said in great anger
that no one of the family could have a new shoe, or a neck ribbon, or
could go across the street twice, without being questioned and
cross-questioned by that young lady, until she became possessed of all
the particulars concerning the purchase or the walk. It is not well to
be violent in condemning one's neighbour, my children; but it is not
wrong to take notice enough of their faults to determine to shun them in
our own conduct, and also to try, if a proper season offers, to help
the