en I became better acquainted with my cousins, I should find
out their faults."

"Well done, my little puzzle-cracker. You _are_ good at guessing. But,
Jessie, what are you going to do? How will you treat your cousins
to-morrow?"

Jessie held down her head awhile, as if she was thinking her way through a
difficult idea. At last she looked up, with eyes full of tenderness, and
with a voice made musical by deep feeling, said:--

"I will be just as kind to them as I possibly can!"

"That's right, my Jessie," said her uncle, folding her to his bosom and
kissing her forehead, "that's right. There is nothing like kindness for
curing ugly children. It's the best medicine in the world to give them.
Give it to them, Jessie, in big doses. Maybe they will like it so well
that they will get cured of their ugliness; for, as the proverb
says,--_Flies are caught with syrup; not with vinegar._"

"Wouldn't it be nice, Uncle Morris, if we could make my cousins
good-natured while they are here? Wouldn't Uncle Albert and Aunt Hannah be
glad if we could send them home kind, and gentle, and good? Oh, I wish I
could get them to be good, as our Guy did Richard Duncan. Wouldn't it be
nice?"

"Try to do it, my dear. We will all help you, and so will the Great Father
above," said Mrs. Carlton, beckoning Jessie to her side and giving her a
kiss so full of a mother's holy love that it sent a thrill of bliss
through the happy heart of her child. Thus like a sunbeam did Jessie
brighten the life of her parents and her uncle. As she left the room to go
to bed, Uncle Morris followed her with his eyes, and when her light form
had glided up-stairs, he turned to his sister and said:--

"That child of yours is a treasure, my sister. I can't tell you how much
her loving little heart gladdens mine. Why, I have grown at least fifteen
years younger in my feelings since she came to Glen Morris. Like a
glorious little sun, she shines into the depths of my heart, melting all
the ice of age and chasing away the gloom of my past sorrows."

"Yes, Jessie is a lovely child," replied Mrs. Carlton. A big tear which
dropped upon her needle-work at that moment showed that the words of her
brother had stirred the deep fountains of love which were within her
heart.

But the two ugly cousins--what were they? Were they not like two black
clouds freighted with storms, and come to darken the light and disturb the
pleasure of that happy household? No wonder their sleep