so many cautions about mingling with
worldly people, that I thought it was best to keep apart from them
altogether. And I was told Mr. Brooke's family were so gay and
worldly, that I supposed you must be so too; and so I thought I ought
not to get into any intimacy that might lead me into temptation."

"I suppose it is right to try to keep out of temptation," said Lucy
thoughtfully.

"Yes; but now I can see that I wasn't right in being so distrustful as
to be afraid of what came naturally in my way. Mamma says that to be
afraid of what may involve temptation, when God's providence,
rightfully construed, leads us into it, is something like the dread
which keeps people from doing their duty in cases of infection;
whereas they should trust that, so long as they do not expose
themselves to it wilfully and needlessly, God will care for them in
the path by which He leads them, as well as in circumstances which
look more secure."

"Yes, I'm sure that's true," said Lucy, thinking of what Fred had said
to her when she had felt afraid to venture into the temptations of her
uncle's house. "But then, whenever we get over our fear and feel
secure, we are sure to fall into some snare."

"Yes," replied her friend, "because we forget our own dependence on
Christ for strength, and begin to walk in our own, instead of looking
to Him continually for help."

"Do you know," said Lucy, "one of my greatest temptations was studying
for the history prize! I was so determined to have it--so set upon
it--that I let it come before everything else, and forgot to ask to be
kept from temptation in it, till, just before the examination, I found
I had forgotten part of what was to be studied; and then, in my
disappointment, I found out how wrong I had been."

"Oh," exclaimed Mary, "I was almost sorry I got the first prize, which
I hadn't been expecting at all, for I was sure you would be dreadfully
disappointed. You had worked so hard for it--harder than I did."

"No, I wasn't disappointed then; I was sure I shouldn't get it, and
didn't expect even the second prize; and I felt quite satisfied that
it should be so, for I had been working in so wrong a spirit, that I
could not have felt happy in getting the prize that had led me
astray."

"Well, it's a relief to my mind to hear you say so," replied Mary,
laughing, "for I felt quite guilty whenever I looked at that book,
feeling as if I had by some incomprehensible accident taken it from
the o