It was summer, and we were riding on the top of the coach through one of
the loveliest parts of Scotland. The coach had five seats with four
persons on each, so you may easily find out how many people there were.
On the next seat to ours sat a lady with a little spoilt boy, about four
years of age, who was very hard to please, and very discontented and
unhappy. You will not be much surprised to hear that presently he began
to cry, for spoilt children often do that, but I do not think you could
ever guess the =reason=. His mother was speaking to a lady on the seat
behind, and when the child was asked, "What is the matter?" he said,
"Mamma is not attending to me when I speak to her," and =that= was why
he cried. He wanted his mother to attend to =him=, to speak to him all
the time, and that was selfish. He was only a very little child, but he
thought too much of that ugly word--=self=, and that was why he was so
discontented and unhappy.
I knew another little child who was always wanting some one to play with
her; she never tried to amuse herself, but was continually teasing her
mother to join in her games. It is better to be like little Elsie (Story
Lesson 21) who when only a year old thought of the comfort of others.