Darknefs and Light. gI

the dark! Sometimes when he was in the large
dining room with his Father and Mother at dinner
time, fhe would perhaps afk him to fetch fome-
thing for her from the drawing room which was
clofe by; but, do you know, if there were no can-
dles in the room, he would look very filly and re-
fufe to go, even though there were a fire fufficient
to fee by. He was too honeft to make any falfe
excufes, fo he ufed juft to fay that the room was
fo dark he could not go!

Poor Madeline was very forry, for fhe wanted
her little boy to be brave, but fomehow or other
he had got very filly about his fears of being in
the dark, and fhe could not fucceed in curing him
of his folly.

_ “ My dear Roderick,” fhe would fay fome-
times, “if I fend in fome candles, will you go
into the drawing room ?”

“ O yes, Mamma.”

“Then do you really mean to fay you think
the Candles take care of you?”

“ No, Mamma.”

“‘’Then why won’t you go into the 'room
without ; you know there is a fire?

“ Becaufe it is fo dark, Mamma.”

Here was a difficulty indeed; for you fee he
would come back to the old point, and would not
liften to reafon.

One day fome converfation of this fort having
pafled between them, Madeline, as fhe was wont
to do, afked him if God could not take care of