alse witness.'"

"Oh, I do _hope_ she didn't," responded Lucy, "but Ada is stuck up. I've
been seeing it more and more lately."

"And how about the beam in my little girl's own eye?" asked Mrs. Berry
gently.

"Haven't I been telling you all about it? I've been just as selfish and
cowardly as I could be." Lucy's voice was despairing.

"I think there's a beam there still. I think you are angry with Ada."

"How can I help it? If it hadn't been for her I shouldn't have been so
mean."

"Oh, Lucy dear!" Mrs. Berry smiled over the head on her shoulder. "There is
old Adam again, blaming somebody else for his fall. Have you forgotten that
there is only one person you have the right to work with and change?"

"I don't care," replied Lucy hotly. "I've been calling evil good. I have.
I've been calling Ada good and sticking to her and letting her run me."

"Was it because of what you could get from her, or because of what you
could do for her?" asked Mrs. Berry quietly.

Lucy was silent a minute, then she spoke: "She wanted me. She liked me
better than anybody."

"Well, now you see what selfish attachments can turn into," returned Mrs.
Berry. "Do you remember the teaching about the worthlessness of mortal mind
love? Here are you and Ada, yesterday thinking you love one another, and
to-day at enmity."

"I'm going with Alma Driscoll now, and I'm going to eat my lunch with her,
and everything. I should think that was unselfish."

"Perhaps it will be. We'll see. Isn't it a little comfort to you to think
that it will be some punishment to Ada to see you do it?"

"I don't know," replied Lucy, who was so honest that she hesitated.

"Well, then, think until you do know, and be very certain whether the
thoughts that are stirring you so are all loving. You see, dearie, we're
all so tempted, in times of excitement, to begin at the wrong end: tempted
to begin with ourselves instead of with God. The all-loving Creator of you
and Ada and Alma has made three dear children, one just as precious to Him
as another. If the loveliness of His creation is hidden by something
discordant, then we must work away at it; and one's own consciousness is
the place where she has a right to work, and that helps all. It says in the
Bible 'When He giveth quietness who then can make trouble?' You can rest
yourself with the thought of His great quietness now, and you will reflect
it."

Mrs. Berry paused and her rocking-chair swayed softly back and for