At last she said, tenderly, but decidedly, "My little Mabel knew it was wrong to take the sugar, but I am glad she meant to put it back. Never take _any_ thing without leave. And the next time you want a lump of sugar very, very much, don't go and get it, and grieve mamma, and please Satan, but come straight to me and tell me all about it. Very likely I shall give you the lump, for I would rather give you a whole bowlful than have you take the tiniest bit yourself, because God wants all His little girls to be perfectly honest." After the children were in bed that night, Mrs. Heath sought her mother's council in the matter. "Ought I to have punished Mabel?" she asked. "It was a difficult case to manage. I cannot doubt her word. She never has shown the slightest disposition to falsehood." "I think you were wise in doing nothing but give an earnest warning. But I would keep my eye upon her if I were you. You know the tendency to peculate dainties is so inherent in children that the Germans have invented a word for it, a verb, in fact." "Yes; and this sort of peculation in a child might run into great criminality in an adult. You can't think what pains I have taken to keep the children free from this evil habit." "One point is to keep them so busy and so happy, that they will not have time to hanker after forbidden dainties. Another is just what I presume you do: show sympathy with them in their frailties; tell them to come and ask for the luxuries they are in danger of appropriating feloniously, and as far as it is good for them, indulge them." "Yes, I do that; yet isn't there danger of pampering gluttony?" "No danger that a sensible woman, like you, will do that. You will easily lead the children to despise gluttony. And want of sympathy with them in their youthful longings after good things, will be sure to engender habits of deceit and dishonesty." "What power the little creatures have to pain us," said Belle. "Oh, how it _hurt_ me when I saw that bit of sugar! How it _hurt_!" "My dear Belle," replied Mrs. Grey, "I considered you a very conscientious child, but you are a far more conscientious woman. Some might think you take this trespass of little Mabel's too much to heart; but I do not think so. If all young mothers looked at sin as you do, our eyes would not be assailed every time we take up our morning journal with the staring words, 'Embezzlement!' 'Fraud!' 'Burglary!' 'Murder!'" "But, mamma, though my children have had their little faults and foibles, this is the first _dishonorable_ act I have ever met with among them. There were certain things I was determined to have--obedience and uprightness." "By uprightness you do not mean perfection?" "No, I mean by it just what you do: freedom from everything mean and petty; a tendency upward, instead of tendency downward." "And don't you see that this desire has come from God, and that He has responded to it? Don't you know that your children are wonderful children?"