THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

331

csc i a a RES ar

had done you an injury, and seemed to
dislike you, and took a pleasure in abusing
you behind your back, saying hard things
about you ?” |

“That’s a difficult question, papa.”

“ Why so, my son %”

“Why, sir, I had just such a trouble
as you speak of last session, with Dick
Simpson, and it did pester me mightily.
And the more I tried to forget it, the
worse it grew. I knew it was my duty to
try and forgive him, but he seemed bent
on a fight any how. He tried to set all
the boys against me, and told downright
stories about me.”

“ What did you do about it?”

“Why, I kept out of his way as much
as I could, out of school, and took good
care never to speak a word about him to
any of the boys. But I was determined
all the time, that if I couldn’t get rid of

the scrape in any other way, that I would’

have to fight him. We were of about
the same size, and it would have been a
tight match between us. I wasn’t one
bit afraid of him; and to tell the truth,
I wanted to fight, only I didn’t want to
hurt your feelings, by coming home with
my face all scratched up. So I let the
thing go along for two or three weeks,
and didn’t show any particular disposition
toward making itup. Indeed, I couldn’t
do that, for he was trying his best all the
time to make me hate him.”

“ Well, how did it turn out?”

“, it all came out right after a while,
for I can’t stay mad at any body very long.
One Sunday morning Mr. Bonner came
into Sunday school, and he read out of
the very chapter you told me of just now;
and when he read this forty-fourth verse,
he stopped and told us a good deal about
the nature of forgiveness, and how that

 

while our hearts are hard, and our dispo-
sitions are bad, it is almost impossible to
forgive one another; yet if we will try
very hard to have a tender heart toward
others, and then will ask God to assist us
in making our own hearts tender, and in
softening the hearts of our enemies, that
it will be done without any doubt.”

“Well, Tommy, this seemed to fit your
case exactly. I hope you followed Mr.
Bonner’s good advice.”

“ Well, sir, I was going to tell you—
Mr. Bonner said, that he had known it in
himself again and again; and that he had

| never prayed to God sincerely for a for-

giving heart, and for a softened heart,
without having his heart softened. ‘This
seemed to suit me exactly, papa, and I
believed what he said; and I set to work
with all my might, to see how it might
answer in my difficulty with Dick Simp-
son; and I read all the verses I could
find in the Testament about loving our
enemies, and being kind to one another;
and as soon as I felt that I wanted to for-
give him, I found I had different feelings
right away.”

“Why, Tom, this is quite a romance
you have had. I was not aware you
youngsters had so many little feuds among
yourselves.”

“Please let me go on and finish my
story, for I wanted to tell you about it for
a long time, only I didn’t know how to
begin. Well, as I was saying, the next
day after this happened—I mean my try-
ing to forgive Dick—we were hard at it
in getting our Liber Primus lesson. Dick
is in my class, and he got into a mighty
tough sentence, which in time of recess
he was going about among all the boys
to get construed for him. None of them
could help him. ‘May be I can do it,