"When I told of my school follies at home, Louisa would sometimes sigh;
and then I would be angry at what I named her 'daring to dictate to me.'
But I never could frighten her into approving what was wrong. I was not
happy in her society, for much of my time of late years had been spent
in a manner of which she could not fail to disapprove, and her whole
life was at variance with mine. I do believe, now, in spite of her
unwearied affection, that it was a relief to her when the vacation was
over, and she had no longer the annoying presence of her wicked, wayward
brother.
"Sometimes Louisa would allude to the way in which we had been
educated, entirely unconscious that I not only had given up all
religious observances, but even dared to make them a matter of sport. I
was half ashamed, and quite as much provoked, when at parting she handed
me a book of 'Private Devotions,' with a mark, worked in her own hair,
at a prayer for absent friends.
"'You had better keep this book for yourself, little Methodist,' I
exclaimed, trying to laugh off my vexation. 'Students have no need of
such text-books, I can tell you.'
"'But students need the protection of an Almighty Creator,' she replied,
seriously, 'and their absent friends, also, are only safe under his
keeping. I always pray for you, my dear brother, as our mother taught me
to do; and I had hoped that you had not given up the petition for your
sister which you also used to say at her knee.
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