SARAH'S RESOLVE.
SARAH had been to Sabbath school, where, I am sorry to tell you, she had not behaved well. Sarah had a new hat, and instead of making a better child of her, it made her vain and foolish.. She had whispered
•••- and played with Clara Smith, and they had compared their ribbons and dresses. But, worst of all, she had acted in an unkind and cruel manner towards a poor little girl who was not so well dressed as others of the class.
The teacher noticed Sarah's conduct with great sorrow, and tried very hard to get her attention on the lesson. She was explaining this beautiful passage to the class, "So many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name;" and when she saw Sarah and others so inattentive to her teaching and so disrespectful and disobedient to her, there were tears in her eyes.
There was a hush among the children when they saw this, and when school was out, they went to their homes with a feeling of shame and regret.
That afternoon Sarah was very quiet and thoughtful. She did not talk about the dress nor the faults of the other children, as she generally did.
"Mother," she said, "who pays our Sabbath-school teacher?"
"Nobody pays, her," was the reply.
"Then why does she teach us?" asked the little girl.
"Because she loves you, and wants to do you good, my dear child."
Sarah sat awhile thinking. "My teacher loves me, and wants to -do me good, and yet I plague and vex her till she cries. It is too bad; too mean! If we behaved so in the week-day school, we should be sent home in disgrace, and we might as well be sent home, for we should never learn anything, if we were so careless and inattentive."
"Mother," she said, getting her Bible, "I am going to learn my lesson for next Sabbath. If our teacher does not have any other pay for all her trouble, I am going to try to pay her by being a good girl."
That is just what you ought to do, my dear," replied the mother; "and this is a resolve I hope you never will forget. You can make your kind teacher's work very pleasant to her, if you are attentive and obedient, and she will feel herself well repaid for all her labor if she sees her scholars improving in knowledge and goodness; but if you are careless and disobedient, she may be so grieved and discouraged that she will give up her work."
Sarah did learn her lesson, and the next Sabbath she not only recited perfectly, but she was quiet and respectful; and she was a happy child as she noticed the glow of pleasure and hope on the face of her teacher. Will not all our little friends try to make their teachers happy?
The Myrtle.