"Very true," answered Miss Collins: "let us all try to remember the Golden Rule, and then we shall neither stare nor do any thing else to hurt another's feelings."
Then she struck the little bell which stood upon her table, and all knew the school had begun, and they must be quiet.
Next calling Bessie Norton to her, Miss Collins gave her a number of Bibles, and the little girl handed one to each of her classmates. Then Miss Collins read a verse aloud, and the children followed, each in her turn.
"Minnie Grey may take the Bibles," said Miss Collins when this was done.
Minnie rose, and went from one to another collecting the Bibles. But instead of taking as many as she could conveniently carry at one time, giving them to Miss Collins, and coming back for the rest, she went on piling one on top of another, till one arm was quite full, when she came to Daisy and held out her other hand for her book. As she did so, the top one of the pile fell to the floor. Minnie stooped for it, and down went two or three more.
"Oh! bother the old things," said Minnie, in a low voice, but very impatiently.
Daisy had stooped to help her pick up the Bibles, but the glow her cheeks wore when she raised her head again was not all owing to that.
Bother the old things! What old things? Why, the Bibles, God's own Holy Word.
Daisy was very much shocked, and she looked up at Miss Collins, expecting to hear her reprove such wicked words, she thought them.