d,
even if he had been steady and industriously disposed, to take the lead.
So of course the leadership fell upon Shenac.

They all said, after a while--the neighbours, I mean--that it could not
have fallen into better hands; and, as far as the family affairs were
concerned, that was true. But for Shenac herself it was not so well.
It is never well to take girls quickly out of their childhood, and it
was especially bad for her to have so much the guidance of these
affairs, for she naturally liked to lead--to have her own way; and,
without being at all conscious of it, there were times when she grew
sharp and arbitrary, expecting to be obeyed unquestioningly by them all.

She was always gentle with the mother, who sometimes was desponding and
irritable, and needed a great deal of patient attendance; but even with
the mother she liked to have her own way. Generally, Shenac's way was
the best, to be sure; for the mother, weakened in mind and body, saw
difficulties in very trifling things, and fancied dangers and troubles
where the bright, cheerful spirit of her daughter saw none. So, though
she yielded in word, she often in deed gave less heed to the mother's
wishes than she ought to have done, and she was in danger, through this,
of growing less lovable as the years went on.

But a sadder thing happened to Shenac than this. In the eagerness with
which she devoted herself to her work she forgot higher duties. For
there is a higher duty than that which a child owes to parents and
friends--the duty owed to God. I do not mean that these are distinct
and separate, or that they naturally and necessarily interfere with each
other. Quite the contrary. It is only as our duty to our Father in
heaven is understood and acknowledged that any other duty can be well or
acceptably performed. And so, in forgetting God, Shenac was in danger
of allowing her work to become a snare to her.

Humbly acknowledging God in all her ways, asking and expecting and
waiting for his blessing in all that she undertook, she would hardly
have grown unduly anxious or arbitrary or heedless of her mother's wish
and will. Conscious of her own weakness, and leaning on eternal
strength, she would hardly have grown proud with success, or sinfully
impatient when her will was crossed.

But in those long, busy summer days, Shenac said to herself she had no
time to think of other things than the work which each day brought.
They had worship always, mor