"When is it, Rollo," said Jonas, "that you prefer another person's
pleasure to your own?"

"Always," said Rollo, with an air of self-conceit and consequence.

Jonas smiled, and went on with his wood.

It is always better for boys to be modest and humble-minded. They appear
ridiculous to others when they are boasting what _great_ things they can
do; and when they boast what _good_ things they do they are very likely
to be just on the eve of doing exactly the opposite.

In a moment Jonas came back out of the parlor, and said, as he passed
through,

"Self-praise
Goes but little ways;"

a short piece of versification which all boys and girls would do well to
remember.

Now it happened that, all this time, Rollo's mother was sitting in a
little bedroom, which had a door opening into the entry where Lucy and
Rollo had been reading, and she heard all the conversation. She knew
that though Rollo was generally a good boy, and was willing to know his
faults, and often endeavored to correct them, still that he was, like
all other boys, prone to selfishness and to vanity, and she thought that
she must take some way to show him clearly what the truth really was,
about his disinterestedness.