in Helen's situation, for she was one of the rich, and the cows belonged to the comparatively poor, on whose behalf this boy was employed to bring them home from their pasture twice every day. It was an interruption not to be borne, either, by one who had never given herself the trouble to think whether cows were created for any other purpose than to be sketched. So Helen set about to reprimand the boy very severely, and having settled him, as she thought, most effectually, she turned again to her delightful occupation, which she enjoyed all the more, from the beautiful situation in which she was seated, the repose of everything around her, and the consciousness that she herself was no unlovely picture, with her dog sleeping at her feet.

It was not many minutes, however, before Helen was interrupted again by the boy.

"If you please, Miss," said he, "I am behind my time, and the people will all be waiting for their milk."

"Never mind!" said Ellen, deeply buried in her occupation-"Let them wait."

At

"But they won't wait," remonstrated the boy. They must wait," said Helen. "It can make little difference to them, I should think. all events, I mean to finish my drawing, so you may go about your business."

very

My business is to fetch the cows, Miss."

"How troublesome you are!" exclaimed Helen. "There, take that," she added, throwing the boy a sixpence.

This procured her a little quiet, but the boy, calculating the consequences to himself of any further delay, wisely concluded that it would require a much greater sum than sixpence to remunerate him for the loss of his situation.

"I am

"I cannot wait any longer," said he. bound to get the cows in at five o'clock, or I lose my situation, and I know there's Jack Milford ready to catch it any day."

"Then I'll make a bargain with you," said Helen. “If you will leave me alone, and not frighten the cows for half an hour, I'll give you half-a-crown. See, there it is."

The half-crown looked large-much larger than the sixpence. The annual village fair was about to take place. The boy already held his sixpence half-a-crown more would make a rich man of him. It was too great a temptation. He advanced to receive his bribe, with awkwardness and confusion, for he knew he was doing wrong; and then throwing himself down upon the bank, endeavored to go to sleep, and forget the impending consequences.

As ignorant as the pencil she held in her hand what those consequences would be, Helen Grafton went on with her sketch, and many a one