THE PREMIUM. 188

Cousin Mary! don’t speak so to him: it only
makes him worse. He don’t really hurt me, you
know, and papa says I ought to be sorry for him,
for that he can never have learned what was
right.”

She had scarcely spoken thus when the boy
dashed round in front of the little party, fol-
lowed by a gentleman who had heard his inso-
lence, and was resolved to punish it. The gentle-
man seized him by the arm, and lifted a cane to
strike him, but Lucy, lropping one of her crutches,
caught him by the sleeve, exclaiming, “ Pray,
sir, do not strike him; he does not know any
better, and I dare say he will not do so again.”

The gentleman to whom Lucy spoke was a
Christian, and, angry as he was, he did not forget
that it was right to forgive injuries. He looked
kindly at Lucy, and said, ‘‘ You are right, my
dear child; but we must not let this boy continue
to act so wickedly and cruelly. Where do you
live, sir?” ‘

“At No. — Centre-strect,” said the boy, sulkily.

“Do you go to Sunday-school ?”

**T go sometimes.”