"No, my dear, it is not to be thought of," replied her mother kindly, but decidedly. "We must have regard to appearances, sometimes, as well as to reality; and your father's creditors might well think it strange for him to be making parties for school-children in his present circumstances. Now are we quite at the bottom of the trouble?"
"Not quite, mother," said Ethel. "I was vexed at something that happened at Aunt Sally Bertie's." She then recounted the circumstances, saying in conclusion: "I know it was wrong to speak so to her, but I tried to make up for it by eating the cake she gave me, though I felt all the time as though it would choke me."
Mrs. Fletcher could not help smiling at the idea of Ethel's making amends for her hasty speech by the sacrifice of eating a piece of her aunt's plum-cake, but she answered quite seriously: "I am glad that you did not quarrel with Aunt Sally, my dear. She was provoking, no doubt, but you must remember that she is a very old woman, and have patience. Try to think not of her disagreeable speeches, but of the many kind things she does for us all. You will never be sorry after she is dead and gone, that you bore with her little ways."
"I don't mind what she says to me," said Ethel; "but I cannot bear to have her talk so about father. Whenever she says any thing particularly vexatious, she always makes it an excuse that she says just what she thinks, or that she is plain-hearted. Do you think that is any excuse, mother?"
"No, my dear, not at all. In the first place, we have no right to think unkind thoughts, and if we think them, the least we can do is to keep them to ourselves, that they may not annoy others. You may observe, too, that those people who pride themselves on being plain spoken, are the last to bear any plain speaking from others."
"I know that," said Ethel. "Aunt Sally will hardly bear a word from any one, though she did not seem to be angry with me this afternoon. She called me Miss Fire-cracker, but she said she liked my spirit."
"It is not very easy to calculate what she will say or do at any time," said Mrs. Fletcher. "Now, if you please, my dear, you may set the table for tea. I am going to make some of those little warm biscuits you like so much."
