Puss was busy playing with the leaves of the book, and
Charlotte walked slowly on with the piece yet in her hand.
"How pretty and bright it looks," she thought. "I wish that I had one to
give. I know the girls will stare to see Annie put in so much. How lucky
it was that I passed; if I had not it would have been lost, or some one
else would have picked it up. I will give it to her in school; I shall
not keep it, of course." Thus quieting her conscience she walked quickly
to school, and took her seat among the rest.
How gradual is the descent to sin. Charlotte would have spurned the idea
of stealing, and yet from desiring to give with a wrong motive she had
been led on step by step, and when the girl who sat next her asked what
she had brought, she opened her hand and showed the piece of money.
School had commenced when Annie came in; she looked disheartened, and
her eyes were red with crying. Charlotte's heart smote her, and could
she have spoken to Annie, she would doubtless have returned the piece of
money, but she dared not leave her seat, and after a few moments it was
whispered around the class that Annie Grey had lost her mission money.
Then the girls about Charlotte told each other how much she had brought,
and she began to think,
"What difference will it make if I put it in the box? it is all the
same, Annie says, who gives the money, so that it is given;" and so when
the box was handed round she dropped the five cent piece in.
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