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care. "I deeply feel," said Mary, "the importance of the trust; and I daily pray to God for strength to execute it: but what, alas! can I do for my brothers, but give them the best advice I can, when they are at home with me, and write to them when they are at school? They are indeed very good boys, and never refuse to attend to what I say, unless in regard to the respect I wish them to pay my sister. But she is constantly finding fault with some of them; and is, I fear, so jealous of their attachment to me, that she will never love them as she ought, which often makes me very unhappy; for I have been used to hear my mother say, that young men generally turned out well, who had a peaceful happy home: and besides, what can be so delightful as a family of love!"
"True," replied Mrs Mason, "it is one of the characteristics of heaven. But in this life, my dear Miss Mary, every one must have their trials; and were it not for the contrariety of dispositions and tem-
