on the window-sill, I plucked my mother by the gown and made her follow
me to the spot.

"It is his doing and his money!" said my father; "good actions have
mended the bad."

"What!" cried my mother, when she had learned all; "and your poor
domino-box that you were so fond of! We will go back to-morrow and buy
it back, if it costs us double."

"Shall we buy it back, Pisistratus?" asked my father.

"Oh, no--no--no! It would spoil all," I cried, burying my face on my
father's breast.

"My wife," said my father, solemnly, "this is my first lesson to our
child,--the sanctity and the happiness of self-sacrifice; undo not what
it should teach to his dying day."




CHAPTER V.


When I was between my seventh and my eighth year, a change came over me,
which may perhaps be familiar to the notice of those parents who boast
the anxious blessing of an only child. The ordinary vivacity of
childhood forsook me; I became quiet, sedate, and thoughtful. The
absence of play-fellows of my own age, the companionship of mature