"I think," said Mamie, "that now I will have to remember always that God sees me all the time; and that He would think I am very ungrateful, and don't deserve to be taken care of, if I don't try to be good and never disobey mamma."
"Yes, I think so too," said Lily; "and that's the very best kind of a verse to help you to 'resist the hm—hm—and he will flee from you.'"
"The who?" asked Belle, amazed; and Mamie and Mabel also looked inquiringly at this mysterious utterance from Lily.
"The hm—hm," repeated Lily, no ways abashed, and persisting in the ambiguous form of expression; "you know that verse, don't you?"
"I know the verse, 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,'" said Belle.
"Yes, that's it," said Lily; "but if everybody knows the verse, which 'most all the world does,—and ought to be ashamed of themselves, if they don't,—why, then it's just as well to say hm—hm, and not that other ugly word."
"But the Bible says it," said Mabel.
"Yes," answered Lily, in a tone of indulgence for the Scriptures; "the Bible can say what it pleases, because it is the Bible; but mortals ought to be more careful."
"You learned that from Maggie and Bessie, I suppose," said Belle. "They never say that word if they can help it."