"That has nothing to do with it. You did wrong, my child, and I am afraid, continued doing so all the afternoon, for Hester tells me you were very harsh and rough with your little sister."
"But Lucy was so naughty and cross, we could not help getting angry."
"I know we ought not to have left her, Mama," said Milly; "but she was so provoking, screaming so loud, it made everybody look at us. Though we told her it was late, she would not come home."
"And she hit me, and said all sorts of things."
"She was in one of her fits of passion," added Milly.
"I am very sorry to hear it," was Mrs. Graham's answer with a sigh, for Lucy's fits of passion were a great sorrow to her.
"If you had been gentler and kinder, would you not have done more good?"
"I don't think so, for Milly didn't get into a passion. I did, Mama, and I am very sorry. Oh dear, it is so hard to be good! And I wanted to be so really, and now I have grieved you and Auntie too. I promised I would show how good her child could be."
"O Lena dear, that is it: you forget what I said, and what you promised; to try and be, not mine, but"——and she paused, while Lena finished the sentence in a low voice—"The child of God. And I have not been good, but I am so sorry, I really am."
"So am I," whispered Milly, nestling close to her mother. "Are you very grieved? Will you forgive us?"