One day she said to me, 'My dear Seraphina, I am afraid you must be very dull, alone all the morning.' I longed to assure her of the contrary; but not having the gift of speech, I could only listen submissively while she continued: 'It is a pity that you should sit doing nothing and wasting your time; so I have brought you some books, which you are to read while I am at my lesson; and I shall expect you to learn just as much as I do.'

So saying, she seated me on my sofa, and placing a table with the books before me: 'Look,' continued she, I have made them for you myself, and covered them with these pretty red and green papers. This is your English History, and this is your French Grammar; and here is a Geography Book, and here is a History of Rome. Now, read attentively, and do not let your thoughts wander; and be very careful not to dogs-ear the leaves; that always looks like a dunce. And mind you sit upright,' added she, looking back, as she left the room in obedience to a summons from her sister.

To be

I obeyed to the best of my power. sure, I did not know which was geography and which was grammar; and English and Roman history were both alike to me. But I did as I

was bid. I sat upright in the place appointed me, staring as hard as I could at the open pages; and my worst enemy could not accuse me of dogsearing a single leaf.

When my mistress returned, she pleased me much by calling me a very good girl, and saying that if I continued to take so much pains, I could not fail to improve. On hearing this, Willy laughed, and said he hoped that that was a duplicate of Margaret's last speech; and Rose looked very happy, and answered that not only Margaret but mamma had said the same.

This was not my only duplicate of Rose's adventures. My education appeared to be conducted precisely on the same plan as her own. Before long, she brought a little pianoforte and set it up in my drawing-room. I thought it rather hid the pretty paper, but it was a handsome piece of furniture.

Now, Lady Seraphina,' said Rose, I am obliged to practise for an hour every day, and you must do the same. See, what a pretty piano I have given you! You need not mind its being meant for a housewife and pincushion; the notes are marked, and that is all you want. Now practise your scales, and be very careful to play right notes and count your time.'

I sat at my piano with all due diligence, but I am sorry to say that my progress did not seem satisfactory. One day Rose said that she was sure I had forgotten to count; and another day, that I hurried the easy bars and slackened the difficult ones; then she accused me of not caring whether I played right notes or wrong, and torturing her ear by my false chords; then I banged the notes till I broke the strings; in short, there was no end to her complaints, till at last she wound them all up by declaring that both she and I hated music, and that if mamma and Margaret would take her advice, we should both leave it off.

But still I practised regularly, and so, I suppose, did Rose; and gradually her reproaches diminished, and she grew more contented with me; and we both persevered, till she said that really, after all, I seemed to have a good ear, and to be likely to make a very respectable player.

But you know it all depends upon yourself, Seraphina; your present improvement is the result of pains and practice. Pains and practice will do anything.'

It was fortunate for me that I had so careful a superintendent as Rose; for unless she had kept a constant watch over me, there is no say

ing how many awkward habits I might unconsciously have contracted. But she cured me of poking my head forward, of standing on one leg, of tilting my chair, of meddling with things that were not my own, of leaning against the furniture while I was speaking, of putting my elbows on the table, of biting my nails, of spilling my tea, and of making crumbs on the floor.

I cannot say I was myself aware either of the faults or their cure; but I think one seldom does notice one's own faults, and therefore it is a great advantage to have kind friends who will point them out to us. I believed Rose when she told me of mine; so I had a right to believe her when she gave me the agreeable assurance of their cure, and to indulge the hope that I was becoming a pleasing, well-bred little doll.

me.

On one mortifying occasion, however, I must own that Rose's anxiety for my always following in her steps was the cause of a serious injury to She remarked that I had got into a horrid way of kicking off my shoes while I was learning my poetry; and she thought the best cure would be to make me wear sandals. I observed that she was sewing sandals to her own shoes at the time, and she consulted Willy about some means of doing the same by mine. Willy held me

head downwards, and examined my feet. My shoes were painted, therefore sewing was out of the question. He advised glue. This was tried, but it came through the thin narrow ribbon. of which my sandals were to be made, and looked very dirty. They were taken off; but the operation had spoilt the delicacy of my white stockings, and Rose said it was impossible to let me go such an untidy figure; we must try some other way. She asked Willy to lend her a gimlet, that she might bore holes at the sides of my feet, and glue the ribbon into them, so as not to show the glue. Willy said she was welcome to the gimlet, but that he advised her to leave it alone, for that she would only break my feet. But Rose would not be dissuaded, and began boring.

It was on this occasion that I most peculiarly felt the advantage of that insensibility to pain which distinguishes my race. What mortal could have borne such an infliction without struggling and screaming? I, on the contrary, took it all in good part, and showed no signs of feeling even at the fatal moment when my foot snapped in two; and Rose, with a face of utter dismay, held up my own toes before my eyes.

Oh, my poor Seraphina!' she exclaimed, 'what shall we do?'