Part 4 (2/2)
When Charles met his mother, she looked at him with a more earnest and affectionate gaze than usual. And then the boy noticed that her countenance became serious.
”Ain't you well, mother?” asked Charles.
”Yes, my dear, I am very well,” she replied; ”but I saw something an hour ago which has made me feel sad. Archy Benton was brought home from the woods this afternoon, where he had gone for chestnuts, instead of going to school, as he should have done, dreadfully hurt. He had fallen from a tree.
Both his arms are broken, and the doctor fears that he has received some inward injury that may cause his death.”
Charles turned pale, when his mother said this.
”Boys rarely get hurt, except when they are acting disobediently, or doing some harm to others,” remarked Mrs Murray. ”If Archy had gone to school, this dreadful accident would not have happened. His father told him that he might go for chestnuts on Sat.u.r.day, and if he had waited until then, I am sure he might have gone into the woods and received no harm, for all who do right are protected from evil.”
”He tried to persuade me to go with him,” said Charles, ”and I was strongly tempted to do so. But I resisted the temptation, and have felt glad about it ever since.”
Mrs Murray took her son's hand, and pressing it hard, said, with much feeling,
”How rejoiced I am that you were able to resist his persuasions to do wrong. Even if you had not been hurt yourself, the injury received by Archy would have discovered to us that you were with him, and then how unhappy your father and I would have been I cannot tell. And you would have been unhappy, too. Ah! my son, there is only one true course for all of us, and that is, to do right. Every deviation from this path brings trouble. An act of a moment may make us wretched for days, weeks, months, or perhaps years.
It will be a long, long time before Archy is free from pain of body or mind--it may be that he will never recover. Think how miserable his parents must feel; and all because of this single act of disobedience.”
We cannot say how often Charles said to himself, that evening and the next day, when he thought of Archy, ”Oh, how glad I am that I did not go with him!”
When Sat.u.r.day came, the father and mother of Charles Murray gave him permission to go into the woods for chestnuts. Two or three other boys, who were his school companions, likewise received liberty to go; and they joined Charles, and altogether made a pleasant party. It did not rain, nor had the hogs eaten up all the nuts, for the lads found plenty under the tall old trees, and in a few hours filled their bags and baskets. Charles said, when he came home, that he had never enjoyed himself better, and was so glad that he had not been tempted to go with Archy Benton.
It was a lesson he never afterward forgot. If he was tempted to do what he knew was wrong, he thought of Archy's day in the woods, and the tempter instantly left him. The boy who had been so badly hurt, did not die, as the doctor feared; but he suffered great pain, and was ill for a long time.
EVENING PRAYER.
Heavenly Father! Through the day, Have we wandered from thy way?
Have our thoughts to error turned?
Has within us evil burned?
Heavenly Father! Oh, remove Evil thoughts and evil love!
Give us truth our minds to fill; Give us strength to do thy will.
Often we are led astray From the true and righteous way; But, we humbly pray to thee, From the tempter keep us free.
Heavenly Father! While we sleep, Angel watchers round us keep.
When the morning breaks, may we, Better, wiser children be.
STRETCHING THE TRUTH.
It is a very bad habit, this stretching the truth, as one does a piece of India rubber; and the worst of it is, that when any body forms the habit, there is no telling how much it will grow upon him.
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