The difficulty which she found in getting what she desired only served to increase the eagerness of the child, and her determination to have the loaf which had been purposely placed out of her reach. Emmy was ready to cry, and accuse her tender mother of unkindness. And was she not in this but too much like many who doubt the love of their Heavenly Father because He has not placed in their hands what they think to be needful for their comfort? At last a thought came into the mind of little Emmy, as she gazed, through her tears, at the fire. She had not strength to move the big chair, in vain she had struggled to do so; but might she not manage to move the guard, and would it not serve her for a footstool to reach the loaf on the mantel-piece? But then mother had told her so often not to meddle with the guard! Why should mother forbid her to touch it? The voice of discontent and distrust in the bosom of the little child, was much the same as that whose whisperings had led Mary Cowell to go out selling on Sunday. With both parent and daughter it proved to be stronger than conscience. Emmy laid hold of the guard and shook it; but old as it was, she had not the power to pull it from its place. Presently, however, the child felt that though she could not pull she could lift it. With eager pleasure Emmy raised the guard high enough to release its iron hooks from the bars, and then there was nothing to prevent her from removing the fence altogether. Emmy's first pleasure was to poke up the fire with the little rusty bit of a poker which she had seen her mother use for the purpose, but which she herself had never been permitted to touch. Then, eager to get at the loaf; she put down the guard in front of the fire, so that she might be able to step upon it. Wretched, disobedient little child! With one foot on that trembling, yielding wire-work, one hand stretched up to take food not lawfully her own, her dress so close to the flame that in another moment it must be wrapt in a roaring blaze, what can now save her from destruction? Suddenly the door opened, and with a cry of terror Mary Cowell sprang forward in time—but just in time, to snatch her only child away from a terrible death! "Oh, thank God—thank God—that I came home, that He made me turn back!" exclaimed the widow, bursting into tears.