Annie was a delicate little girl, and had never associated much with the
village children in their rude sports. Once, when her mother spent a
week at Mrs. Murray's, assisting her to spin, she had taken Annie, and
thus a friendship commenced between herself and Charlotte.
Annie had been early taught by her mother to abhor deceit and falsehood
as hateful to God, and Charlotte often startled her by equivocating, but
she had never known her to tell a direct untruth, and she loved her
because she was affectionate and kind. Some kind and pious ladies had
succeeded in establishing a Sunday-school in the village, and Annie was
among the first who attended; she told Charlotte, who prevailed upon her
mother to let her go, and they were both regular scholars.
One pleasant Sunday morning, the two little girls went together to
school, and after all the children had recited their lessons, the
superintendent rose and said that a good missionary was about to leave
his home, and go to preach the Gospel to the heathens far over the sea,
and that they wanted to raise a subscription and purchase Bibles to send
out with him, that he might distribute them among those poor people who
had never heard God's holy word.
He told them how the poor little children were taught to lie and steal
by their parents, and how they worshiped images of carved wood, and
stone, and sometimes killed themselves and drowned the infants, thinking
thus to please the senseless things they called their gods.
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