ABSTRACT
The next morning they had a very cheerful breakfast; but no one in company was so gay as Mary. She stood smiling at the back of her mother’s chair, stealing a look at her father, as she drank her milk, with eyes sparkling with joy. Mary, said he, you have certainly been very good, because you look so happy. – Perhaps I have, answered she, and stepping softly into the next room, soon returned with her work-basket full of the muslin her mother gave her to hem the day before. She put it on the table, and said, you were very right, dear mother, through perseverance we may do many things which we thought impossible. Look, look, here are the flounces which you yesterday gave me to hem. I did not think that I / should ever have got to the end; but through perseverance and attention, I have made it possible. Is it not true? If I had got up from my seat every moment, had I played or looked out of the window, I should not have finished half my task. But I did not do so, I minded what you said, mother; I never left my seat, but when I could not help it. I heard once a Frenchman in the street, with dancing dogs; I must own that I did wish to see them; yet I did not stir. My brother came twice to ask me to come and play with him; but I fixed my eyes on my work, thinking how surprized you all would be to see it done at breakfast time. Yes, dear mother, I am glad I did as you bade me.
