She looked around; nobody
was near to share her discovery; and her first impulse was joy at the
unexpected prize.
8. "It is mine, all mine," said she to herself; "I will buy
mother a new cloak with it, and she can give her old one to
sister Mary, and then Mary can go to the Sunday school with
me next winter. I wonder if it will not buy a pair of shoes for
brother Tom, too."
9. At that moment she remembered that he must have given it to her by
mistake; and therefore she had no right to it. But again the voice of the
tempter whispered, "He gave it, and how do you know that he did not intend
to make you a present of it? Keep it; he will never know it, even if it
should be a mistake; for he had too many such bills in that great
pocketbook to miss one."
10. While this conflict was going on in her mind between good and evil,
she was hurrying homeward as fast as possible. Yet, before she came in
sight of her home, she had repeatedly balanced the comforts which the
money would buy against the sin of wronging her neighbor.
11. As she crossed the little bridge over the narrow creek before her
mother's door, her eye fell upon a rustic seat which they had occupied
during the conversation I have before narrated.
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