The child thought.

'Nothing, father, not one single thing,' she answered; 'but I deserved all that I had at school, didn't I, when I could be cross and ill-tempered even to old Turc, who was always ready to do me good, and to little Dolly Scott too, my little English friend, whom I want you to invite, with Clochette, if you will, to come home with me next Thursday. She has been such a dear little friend to me! One day when I was walking along the garden all alone, feeling too cross to speak to anybody, Dolly came and took hold of my hand, and walked along with me, without saying one word, and that made my angry feelings go away. Wasn't it kind of Dolly, father?'

'Very kind,' said Mr. Montgomery, as he kissed his little Hilda, and wiped tears from her eyes that had gathered there. Then he felt very glad that he had sent his child to school when he did.

She had found her level, and was all the better for the finding. No flattery of the natives in Grenada would have persuaded Hilda now that she was good. She had learnt her own shortcomings, and where much had been shallow before, there was now a depth of character in the child.

'Are you happy at school?' asked her father.

'Very, now,' was the quick reply; 'because I like the lessons, and I have a great many friends, and sometimes I go out with them; and if I don't, on Thursday afternoons the girls and I make clothes for our dolls, and we play games. Yes, I am very happy now; but I shall be very glad when you and mother come to England, for I do so want to see dear mother and Nana and Dora again. How soon do you think it will be?' 'In about twenty to twenty-four months.'

'Oh, I shall be glad when that time comes! I don't suppose I shall know Dora at all when I see her,' said Hilda. 'Do you think I shall?'

S Mr. Montgomery had business to transact in London, and the school year was just ending in Passy, and Hilda's summer holidays were just beginning, her father took her with him to England there to spend them. This was a great treat for the child, as she had not been to England before; and whenever her father could spare the time from his business, he took her to see some sight or gave her some pleasure or another. She found great delight in shopping with her father, and helping him to choose gifts for the dear ones in Grenada. People abroad think so much of presents from England.

And Hilda also had some presents to buy in London to take back to school,-one for Mademoiselle L'Herbier, who had been so very kind to her; one for Clochette, another for Dolly Scott, and one for Mathilde. Yes, Hilda thought about this for a long time before she made up her mind, but then it was quite made up, and she bought a present for Mathilde, to show her that she was nearly forgetting and had quite forgiven. Clochette and Dolly had spent the promised afternoon with Hilda before she came away, and had enjoyed themselves very much.

The child determined to send Dora a doll's perambulator from England, and a doll from Paris. She liked the French dolls better than the English. She wanted to send Dora all the largest toys that she could find, but father reminded her that these toys would have to be packed. Her black friends. were again remembered.

The little box had come with her to England, and when her father had to go to places where he could not take her, Cleopatra kept her company. But then her father's stay in Europe, and her holidays, drew towards an end, so father and daughter had their last, long talk together, Hilda had to be taken back to school in Passy, and he had to start on his homeward journey to Grenada.

Partings are always sad. Unlike other things, I think the more we have of these the less we grow accustomed to them, and of course Hilda felt again very much this parting with her father. We should not love her if she had not done so.

When he was gone, and she settled down again to school life, she still had her trials, temptations, and difficulties to encounter, but she faced, and tried to overcome, them very manfully. One girl would sometimes provoke her to anger; another, not to jealousy (there was no jealousy in Hilda's disposition), but to slight feelings of mortification and pride. In a large school, where there are about one hundred and fifty pupils, one disposition must often jar very much upon another; but Hilda, with many of her companions also, learnt to bear and forbear, and neither to wish nor to expect to be thought of first.

She

In Grenada she had often been called unselfish. now knew that the word had been misapplied to her, for to be unselfish we must to a very large extent forget self, and this she had not done; we must be ready to give up all that on which we set value for the good of others; our own interests must be sunk in those of another.

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Mathilde had often tried to quarrel with Hilda since that eventful day, but Hilda tried, in return, very hard to keep her temper when she said hard, disagreeable, provoking things to her, so the quarrel did not often come off.

She had at

first refused to accept the little present that Hilda had brought her from England, but she had done so afterwards; and Mathilde, whose every better instinct and principle had been sacrificed to a bitter, disagreeable spirit of revenge, was learning by degrees to see herself and her faults as others could not fail to see them, and then really to grow ashamed

of them.

Without knowing that they did so, the girls at Madame Rivière's school in Passy exercised much influence upon one another, and Hilda's forgiving spirit towards Mathilde was having a very good effect, and causing her less and less to try to quarrel with her. Clochette also very seldom now spoke anything but quite the truth.

The next two years seemed to pass very quickly, and then both Hilda's parents came to visit her together; but as Mr. Montgomery had much business to transact, that would take him about a great deal, and he could only spare four or five months in all to be away, he decided not to bring Dora or Nana with them.

He was able to come to this decision, because a great friend of his wife's, who lived on one of the highest mountains in Grenada, kindly offered to receive the child and her nurse whilst her parents were away; and he there placed them in a very pleasant home for the time.

Mr. and Mrs. Harcourt remained in Paris many months after Mr. Montgomery went back, and his daughter, who had just left school, came also from England to stay with

them.

Hilda was very glad of this, as they were very kind to her, and often asked her to spend a holiday afternoon with them.

She and Basil had many a game together. He told his sister that he liked Hilda because she could play such sensible games with him. Mr. and Mrs. Harcourt were now back in Grenada (they remained away one year in all). Basil was in England with his tutor; and his sister, who stayed behind in Paris with an aunt, had, since her parents went back to the West Indies, married a French gentleman and settled in Paris.

Hilda now enjoyed her parents' visit as much as it was possible for her to enjoy anything, and once again she had very much to ask about dear Grenada and its inhabitants.

Poor old Grandfather Charles was dead. He had died of a severe attack of rheumatism six months ago. Hilda had wondered lately why she never received a message from him now, but her parents had kept back this news, that they knew would grieve her, till they could impart it to her themselves. She now heard that he died very happily and peacefully, often inquiring for her in his last illness. "The Parson' came to see him whilst he was ill, and administered to him the Holy Communion. Just before he died he gave his master a little picture of the crucifixion, that Miss Hilda had once long ago, he said, cut out of one of her books for him, asking that this might be given back to her from him, and that she might be told that the picture had taught him, who could not read, to understand much better about it all.

'Dear little Miss Hilda!' he would say sometimes; 'I wonder if em still tink on poor ole Charl'. Him often tink on him, and lub him fe true, 'cause em larn off him so well what kindness an' good-care-for mean.'

Hilda was very sorry to think that the old man, of whom she had been so fond as a little child, had gone away; but she was very glad to hear of his happy death, and she valued very much the picture he had returned to her after possessing and taking care of it so long.