"You have brothers," he said; "some day they will go a little
astray--for it is only women like you, Miss Meg, and angels who
can keep to the path always. Don't be too hard on them. Don't
make an effort to show them the difference between your whiteness
and their blackness. They will see it right enough, but they
won't like you to draw their attention to it. Try and look gentle
and forgiving--they'll feel quite as miserable as you could wish
them to feel. The world has a beautiful frown of its own, and an
endless vocabulary of cold words--wouldn't it do if the little
sisters left it the monopoly of them?"
"Oh-h-h!" said Meg. Her cheeks were crimson, and all the dignity
had oozed out of her voice.
He buckled the strap round nothing with infinite care, and went on
again in a low tone:
"Suppose Pip did something very wrong some day, and the world flung
stones at him till he was bruised all over. And suppose feeling
very wretched, he came home to his sisters. And Meg, because
wickedness was abhorrent to her, threw a few more little stones,
so that the pain might teach him a lesson he could not forget.
And Judy, because he was her brother and in trouble, flung her arms
round him and encouraged him, and helped him to fight the world again,
and gave him never a hard word or look, thinking he had had plenty.
Pages:
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193