Mary did not forget it, however, nor feel quite satisfied with its termination, for the next morning, as I was sitting in my room alone, she came in, and after moving about a little while, seated herself by me and said, "Aunt Kitty, I want to ask you a question."
"Well, my dear, what is it?"
"I want to know when you do think a person is generous?"
"A person is generous, Mary, when he gives up his own gratification or advantage for the gratification or advantage of another."
"Well, that was what I always thought, Aunt Kitty—and now I am sure a little girl does that when she gives away her books and her playthings, and her money, does she not?"
"When a little girl becomes tired of books and playthings, Mary, they cease to amuse her, do they not?"
"Yes, Aunt Kitty," said Mary, "if she get tired of them,—but I never get tired of books and playthings if they are pretty."
"Perhaps you may not, my dear," I replied, "but some other little girls do, and those little girls are most apt to do so who have the greatest number of such things. Now, should they give away those of which they are tired—which had ceased to amuse them—could you say they had given up a gratification?"
"No, Aunt Kitty," said Mary, speaking very slowly, for she was beginning to understand my meaning.
"Then this would not be what we mean by being generous?"