"Well," answered Don, "I s'pose it's just as pretty, but some way the
weeds make it look ugly."
"That's just what I was thinking about," said Grandma. "I have seen
children who were like this flower in the weeds. They had beautiful
faces; but they let the weeds of disobedience, selfishness, deceit, and
pride grow all about them until you could not see their beauty for the
ugly weeds.
"This garden makes me think of two cousins that I knew once. One was
obedient, unselfish, and kind to everybody; and although she did not
have a beautiful face, she was loved by all who knew her. The other girl
had a beautiful face; but she had such an unlovely disposition that
nobody cared for her, and so she was left very much to herself. Her
beauty, like this lovely flower, was quite hidden by the ugly weeds
growing up all around her.
"These weeds in the flower-bed were very small in the beginning; but
they grew and grew, until now they are taller than the flowers. And the
weeds in God's child-gardens are small at first, too. To begin with,
there springs up the weed of telling a story that is not quite true. If
it is not pulled up at once, soon it grows up into a big ugly lie weed.
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