He was turning away when Mary spoke, though in so low a tone that no one could hear her. Mr. Mackay, putting his head down to her, asked what she said, and she repeated, "I do not think it was wrong in me to want Jessie to get the lamb and to give her my cards that she might get it."
"Are you quite sure, Mary, that you did wish Jessie to win the prize? Do you think you would have been pleased that she should have got the lamb in any other way than by your giving it to her? Still, however this may be, the wish to give it was generous, and far from thinking it wrong, I am more pleased with it in my daughter, than even with her studiousness and punctuality;—but, was it right in you, when your kind intention could not be accomplished without a very wrong action in Jessie, to wish that she should do it, and to be angry with her because she would not? Ought you to have thought so much more of your generosity than of Jessie's truth?" Mr. Mackay waited a little while for an answer, then said, "Speak, Mary—was this right?"
While her father had been speaking to her, Mary had ceased to weep, though she still kept her head down, and her face covered with her hands. Even now she could not lift her eyes, though she raised her head a little as she said, almost in a whisper, "No, papa."
Jessie, whose eyes had been fixed upon Mary with the most earnest, anxious look you can imagine, now put her arm quickly around her neck, exclaiming in a joyful tone, "Then, Mary, you will not be vexed with me any more, will you?"
"No, Jessie," said Mary, kissing her, "it was very wicked in me to be vexed with you just because you were good."
"Now, my dear Mary," said Mr. Mackay, "in taking blame for your own fault, and giving to your friend the credit she deserves, you are indeed generous, and I may now put back the lamb's collar—you merit the reward."
As he spoke, he kissed both the little girls. Mary sprang into her father's arms and hid her face on his shoulder. As she did so, I saw that there were tears in her eyes, yet she smiled and looked very happy. In a little while she looked up, and seeing Jessie seated on the floor playing with the lamb, said, laughing, "Why, Jessie, I thought you hated the lamb."
"Not now, Mary," said Jessie, "I love it now."
And now it will be easy for my little readers to see that the one thing which Jessie loved more than Mary was "Truth."