CHAPTER II.

NEW TO THE WORK.

"Hope rules a land for ever green;

All powers that serve the bright-eyed queen
Are confident and gay ;

Clouds at her bidding disappear;

Points she to aught?-the bliss draws near
And fancy smooths the way."

WORDSWORTH.

I ROSE the next morning braced and buoyant. I had undertaken a duty and I meant to perform it. So far, all was well. But my confidence had not departed. It had yielded in no way to humility. My own strength seemed sufficient for me, and I went forth in it anew.

During the absence of the heads of the household, it had been arranged that we were all to have our meals together, and at the children's early hours The dining-room, however, was substituted for the nursery; and the little ones, being enfranchised so far, became unduly elated. George, it is true, remained solemn as ever; but as his gravity had a close affinity to greediness, I scarcely rated it very high.

Aunt Rachel appeared in gloom, a dread weight upon her brow. Even her cap seemed sombre, and nodded ominously. Black lace had replaced white in it, and the red ribbon had faded into purple. Flossy had not recovered yet, and was borne in tenderly in a basket. I saw that aunt eyed Fred closely and suspiciously, and wondered what was wrong.

He, smiling as ever, settled himself at the breakfast table with some preliminary attention to Dick, which left him shaky on his high chair. I had been glowing with pride hitherto. Dick was spotless. His "overall" uncrumpled, his hair shining, his cheeks fresh as But at this juncture his mug of cocoa went over him instantaneously. I think the catastrophe rather relieved him. The unnatural strain of tidiness was too much for his repose.

a rose.

Aunt Rachel, however, rose in a fume.

"This is intolerable !" she cried. "Who could sit at table with such children?-one and all are the same. Some one fastened a cord to the bottom of my door last night, and when I opened it this morning Eliza, the housemaid, was nearly taken off her feet. The strings stretched everywhere."

"It wasn't me," exclaimed Dick impulsively, and his mug was just gone again.

George was speechless, but then that couldn't count for much, seeing that his cheeks were distended, and a thick slice of bread and butter had already vanished from off his plate.

All eyes were turned on Fred.

"It was you, sir-I know it!" said my aunt fiercely. "I-I was working out a mathematical problem," began Fred; but I stopped him at once.

Now or never I felt that my authority must interpose.

"Fred, I am ashamed of you!" I exclaimed. "I wonder you would be such a baby as to play pranks like these. You promised your father you would behave quietly and rationally. You were to help me, he said."

"Oh! and what prodigies have you been up to, Nell, that I was to bear a hand in?" was the retort. "Lucy was crying all the evening, George more crammed than ever, and I seldom saw Dick such a pickle. He was too much of a blackamoor even to torment."

I felt my ire rising, but checked it. To enter into a controversy with Fred before all the juvenile party would have been an undignified proceeding, and one involving a possible defeat. Fortunately a diversion was caused by the appearance of the letter-bag.

A few lines came from my mother, announcing their arrival as far as Liverpool, and Aunt Rachel got two lengthy epistles from maiden friends, which occupied her till the conclusion of the repast. Family prayers followed then, and Aunt Rachel, with spectacles on her nose, seated herself before the big Bible. The children were always orderly at such times, and

I had them in a steady row before me, when Fred suddenly broke the ranks.

Aunt was feeling about for her footstool, which seemed an indispensable adjunct, as giving her a more enthroned air, and I was glad to see him attentive in pushing it towards her.

But at the moment an awful yell broke forth. Aunt leaped from her seat, and Fred gained his in a bound. She had put her foot full upon Flossy. The pug had crept out of his basket to the soft cushion, and this was the support proffered so eagerly by Fred.

Commotion followed, and aunt's wrath was so terrible that I had finally to read the chapter myself. When it was ended I took Fred seriously to task. But his spirits were beyond depression by rebuke, and I had to give him up in despair.

This was the day for him to begin work with his tutor, and I could only hope that mental exercise might tame him in a measure. Mr. Locke, the gentleman with whom he was to read, had only recently settled in the neighbourhood. He was the new curate, and had taken a pretty cottage about half a mile distant from Crystal Lodge. His engagement to a young lady in his former parish was at once announced by our rather garrulous rector, and it was an understood thing that as soon as he had obtained pupils enough to add a proper increase to his income, his happiness need no further be deferred.

None of us but my father had seen him yet, and as Fred was to go to his house, it was not probable, at all events at present, that we should know much of him. Aunt Rachel did not approve of gentlemen on the whole, and though an engaged man carried an air of safety with him, still his bachelor's degree clung about him, and he might at any moment become a Master of Arts."

Fred started punctually for the cottage, the novelty of the thing having attraction for him as yet; and once his perplexing presence was removed, I gathered the children around me gravely in the schoolroom. Dick was supposed to be "bright "—not in his person, it is superfluous to say, but in some inward nook of his mind which could not come in contact with external soil. Arithmetic was his strong point, and to this he begged to be set now, though I quailed a little at the prospect. I was weak in the line; figures presented themselves to me more formidably than an array of artillery, and if he caught me tripping, I was prostrate at once. To shoot ahead of me in ciphering was fatal to my rule-in fact, to make a cipher of me. However, with the help of a "key" I might hold my own, and Dick was posed presently with an immense slate before him, and an excruciating cutter.

Merylle I steadied on the piano-stool with a shake. It was the only way of awakening her to a sense of work and duty. Dear little Lucy had not much to do as yet; thus only one member of the party remained