ria had been left with
the care of Willy, just as her cousin called; and it happened, too, that
Willy was that afternoon unusually fretful and difficult to please. If
Maria left him for a moment, or if she did not hold him exactly in the
posture which suited him, or if she had not precisely the thing ready
which he wanted at the moment, he would act just as all babies of nine
or ten months sometimes take it into their heads to act. With all her
patience and good-humor, she hardly knew how to manage him; and
especially after having been obliged to reject so agreeable an
invitation as the one her cousin brought, she found her task a little
irksome.

She could hardly repress an occasional expression of impatience, as she
tried in vain to please the wayward little fellow. But her patience and
good-humor were very soon restored; and as she reflected that she was
doing her mother a great deal of good, by staying at home with Willy,
she felt quite willing to dismiss all thoughts of the berrying
expedition. The girls, however, did not forget her. It was proposed by
one of the party, when Ellen had stated the reason why Maria could not
join them, that each should contribute some portion of her berries to be
carried to her on their way home. All agreed very readily to the plan,
and each took pains to select the largest and the ripest of her berries
for Maria's basket. The gratification afforded Maria by this little
token of kind remembrance, more than compensated for the self-denial
which she had practised. It is almost always the case when persons
cheerfully submit to any privation, for the sake of other persons, or
because it is duty, that they are amply rewarded for it. They enjoy, at
least, the consciousness of doing right, which is one of the very
highest sources of pleasure. Maria would, at any time, have been
satisfied with only this reward; but it very often happened, very
unexpectedly, that something more was in store for her. This was the
case upon the time when she gave up her ride, and her visit to the
caravan, for the sake of her brother. I have not said that it was
absolutely Maria's duty to yield to her brother, in this case: perhaps
it would have been perfectly right for her to have maintained her own
claims; and yet there is no doubt that she felt a great deal happier for
the sacrifice she had made.

But we were going to speak of some further reward that her amiable
behavior, in this instance, procured her. As