"But I can't say 'I believe you' to arithmetic, if I want to do it."
"No, but you can say, I believe I can do it—I believe in myself."
"Is that confidence in myself?" Beth asked, light breaking in upon her.
"That's it. You're getting quite a vocabulary, Beth. A vocabulary is all the words you know," he added hastily, anticipating the inevitable question.
Beth went on with her weeding for a little.
"And there is another thing, Beth, I want to tell you," her father recommenced. "Never do anything unless you are quite sure it is the right thing to do. It doesn't matter how much you may want to do it, you mustn't, if you are not quite, quite sure it is right."
"Not even if I am just half sure?"
"No, certainly not. You must be quite, quite sure."
Beth picked some more weeds, then looked up at him again: "But, papa, I shall never want to do anything I don't think right when I'm grown up, shall I?"
"I'm afraid you will. Everybody does."