"Miss Baylis is to blame; she said many things that were untrue about it, and now you see one reason why I dislike the business; I think I shall ask uncle to let me do something else. But I shall talk to your mother about it first." Jane did not forget the subject, and when she told Mrs. Davis of her wish to give up her present occupation, she felt a little disappointed when her kind friend asked calmly, "On what ground, my dear, will you name this wish to your uncle? He will want a good reason for it, of course." "I shall tell him that it is a business which tempts people to be vain and worldly, and that I do not like to spend my time so." "But examine well, dear Jane, before you blame the business. There will always be people who have neither time, not inclination, nor ability to make their own clothing; and is it not right that they should have it done for them?" "Yes, I suppose it is." "Well, cannot directions be obeyed, and the best method and the best materials employed, without vanity, or insincerity, or worldliness on the part of the workman?" "They might by Mary." "And why not by Jane, if she has the same principle to guide her, and the same desire to adorn the Gospel she professes to love? It appears to me that your idea is just met by the advice of the apostle, 'Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called,' if it be a lawful one. The only objection you bring against your business is that which covetousness or some such sin joins to it. There is nothing wrong in itself; and if you see it abused into wrong by others, you should try to prove that it is no more of necessity the minister of sin than any other calling in the world." "But one would never get on, you know. It would be but a poor second-rate sort of business, if one could not do as others do." "'What is 'getting on,' Jane? Where does one get to? What is the end in view? Is it to glorify God in some prospect of a future that we may never live to see? It seems to me that the Christian has nothing to do with what the world calls 'getting on,' but his desire and duty are to glorify God every day and every hour of his life in the present, the only time he is sure of; and if doing that, 'why take ye thought for the morrow?' 'Why envy the foolish their rapid prosperity, when so few can bear it without being 'lifted up to their hurt?' How far better to walk with God in conscientious regard to truthfulness and sincerity, depending prayerfully on his providence, than to manage a first rate fashionable business with a worldly eye to 'getting on.'" "Then don't you think one ought to wish to give up some day, and be—be independent?" hesitated Jane. "To save something, I mean, that we may have it to live upon when we are not able to work."