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It was a very tiny beginning, you may think, for any one to make; but great rivers take their rise from little springs, and large trees grow out of small seeds; and all the self-denial and kind deeds which showed themselves in the future life of Patience were to be traced to this first hearty effort of hers.

Patience was striving now, in her daily conduct and play with other children to please them instead of pleasing herself; and she was surprised to find what a good effect it had. She was much happier, for she was so busy attending to others that she had not time to notice whether they were neglecting her; and thus she escaped most of the jealous feelings which used to trouble her when she was ready to be offended by trifles and disposed to magnify them as much as possible. And she made her young friends happier as well as herself. They always liked to have her with them, because she was so kind and willing to oblige; and she went home one day quite delighted because she heard one little girl say to another, "Well, I shall get Patience to help me with it; she will not mind the trouble; and she looks so pleasant when you ask her to do anything for you." Patience felt that to have won such a good opinion as this quite repaid her for all her pains; and it cheered her to think that, lame and plain-looking as she was, she might be truly beloved by those around her.

But we must take a glance at Patience in her home as well as when she is amongst her playmates; for some persons who appear very loving out-of-doors are just the opposite in-doors. Her grandmother would have told you that this was not the case with Patience, but that her house was hardly like the same place since her grandchild went with Miss Annie to the Sunday school.

Her grandmother might well say that there was a great change at home; for, besides that Patience was learning to control her temper, and to be cheerful instead of cross, she had begun to help in the house-work, and to do all that she could to increase her grandmother's comfort. I will tell you what made her set about it.

One afternoon Patience felt very dull. She was not so well as usual; she could not go out, for it was raining; and she sat by herself, thinking what a poor helpless girl she was, till she began to be quite unhappy. She was doing just what Miss Annie had told her not to do, -- fixing her thoughts too much upon herself. "But how can I help it?" sighed poor Patience; "I can not forget myself in trying to make somebody happy, for there is not anybody here. Is there anything I can do for grandmother?" No, she could not recollect that there was. At that minute she looked at the empty grate. Couldn't she try to light the fire, and get the tea ready? It would be so nice for her grandmother to find it all prepared for her when she came home, wet and tired.

It was a great work for Patience to make the fire and boil the kettle, and she was a long time over it. Oh, how busy she was, and how great a matter she felt it to be! She never heeded the rain pattering on the window, nor thought how afflicted she was.

She had just finished putting the bread and butter and cups and saucers on the table when her grandmother returned. What a pleasant sight met her eyes as she came in at the door! a bright little fire burning in the grate, and the kettle boiling over it! "Why, Patience, my child," she said, "this is nice!"

From that afternoon Patience tried to be useful and busy. She found that having plenty to do made her much more contented and better tempered. She did not feel half so irritable when she was well employed. And the poor lame girl learned to keep her grandmother's cottage as neat and as clean as the squire's great house, and brightened it up both in winter and in summer with her own calm, happy-looking little face.

Patience had often been laughed at on account of her lameness by Betsy Stevens. Betsy was not altogether an unfeeling girl, but she liked to mimic anything that she thought looked funny; and she used to imitate Patience in her walk, to make others laugh. One day Betsy's foot slipped on a piece of orange-peel which had been carelessly thrown on the kitchen stairs; she fell nearly to the bottom, and her leg was broken. It was many, many weeks before she was able to go about again, and she suffered a great deal of pain, besides being confined to the house.

Then she remembered her ridicule of Patience, and thought how Patience would say she was rightly served for it. But Patience did not say any such thing; she had long since forgiven, if she had not forgotten, Betsy's unkind conduct; and she was one of the first who went in to inquire how she was, and, to tell her how sorry she felt for her. Betsy's mother kept a shop, and also took in some ironing; she was therefore unable to sit up-stairs beside Betsy, or to be much with her till the evening; and Betsy would often have felt very lonely if Patience had not kindly come in and kept her company. Patience had plenty of time to spare, and she willingly employed it in trying to cheer poor Betsy, and to soothe her restlessness. It was not always easy to do this; for, though really grateful to Patience for her constant care, Betsy was not used to be so still, so that she bore the accident very badly, and was often very peevish and discontented. But Patience, taught forbearance by her own feelings, persevered in her kind efforts, and made a very good little nurse. So the good old doctor thought who came to visit Betsy. He had often noticed the quiet, modest little girl who was so patient with Betsy and so handy in waiting upon her; and one day, as he was going out of the room, he turned to Patience, and said, very pleasantly, "Well, my little maid, and what is your name?"