token of kind remembrance, more than compensated for the self-denial
which she had practised. It is almost always the case when persons
cheerfully submit to any privation, for the sake of other persons, or
because it is duty, that they are amply rewarded for it. They enjoy, at
least, the consciousness of doing right, which is one of the very
highest sources of pleasure. Maria would, at any time, have been
satisfied with only this reward; but it very often happened, very
unexpectedly, that something more was in store for her. This was the
case upon the time when she gave up her ride, and her visit to the
caravan, for the sake of her brother. I have not said that it was
absolutely Maria's duty to yield to her brother, in this case: perhaps
it would have been perfectly right for her to have maintained her own
claims; and yet there is no doubt that she felt a great deal happier for
the sacrifice she had made.

But we were going to speak of some further reward that her amiable
behavior, in this instance, procured her. As her father opened a package
which he had brought on his return, he silently placed in her hands a
beautiful copy of a newly-published work, upon the fly-leaf of which she
found written--"Maria Wilton--a reward for her kind and obliging manners
towards her brothers and sisters."



SMALL CRAFT

When they had finished the story, Lucy shut the book, saying, "Maria was
a good girl, was not she, Rollo?"

"Yes," said Rollo, "she was an excellent girl. I would have done just