Poor Joel he had much to struggle with; for if indulgence and
over-weening affection ruin their thousands, neglect and heartlessness
ruin tens of thousands. The heart not used to exercise the affection,
becomes as it were paralyzed, and so he found it. He could not love as
he ought, he could not be grateful as he knew he ought to be, and he
found himself continually receiving acts of kindness, as matters of
course, and without suitable feeling of kindness and gratitude in
return; but the more he knew of himself the more he felt of his own
unworthiness, the more gratefully he acknowledged and appreciated the
love of others to him. The ungrateful are always proud. The humble,
those who know how undeserving they are, are always grateful.




CHAPTER THIRTEENTH.

THE NEW HOME.


Let us pass by twelve months, and see how the law of kindness is working
then. Mrs. Parker is certainly happier, less troubled than she was two
years ago; Edith is a better and more dutiful child, and the sisters are
far more sociable with her than formerly. The dove of peace has taken up
its abode in the Parker family. How is it in High Street? Emilie and
aunt Agnes are not there, but Miss Webster is still going on with her
straw bonnet trade and her lodging letting, and she is really as good
tempered as we can expect of a person whose temper has been bad so very
long, and who has for so many years been accustomed to view her fellow
creatures suspiciously and unkindly.