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had fallen, determined to drive a delicate little girl, who was afraid of the walk, to the top of the eminence. She jumped out for the purpose, and we followed, watching and admiring her as she won her way up the hill now tugging at the donkeys in front, with her bright face towards them and us, and springing along backwards. now pushing the chaise from behind now running by the side of her steeds, patting and caressing them-now soothing the half-frightened child -now laughing, nodding, and shaking her little whip at us - darting about like some winged creature - till at last she stopped at the top of the ascent, and stood for a moment on the summit, her straw bonnet blown back, and held on only by the strings; her brown hair playing on the wind in long natural ringlets; her complexion becoming every moment more splendid from exertion, redder and whiter; her eyes and her smile brightening and dimpling; her figure in its simple white gown, strongly relieved by the deep blue sky, and her whole form seeming to dilate before our eyes. There she stood under the arch formed by two meeting elms, a Hebe, a Psyche, a perfect goddess of youth and joy. The Ridges are very fine things altogether, especially the part to which we were bound, a turfy breezy spot, sinking down abruptly like a rock into a wild fore-ground of heath and forest, with a magnificent command of distant objects; - but we saw nothing that day like the figure on the top of the hill.

After this I lost sight of her for a long time. She was called suddenly home by the dangerous illness of

her mother, who, after languishing for some months, died; and Mary went to live with a sister much older than herself, and richly married in a manufacturing town, where she languished in smoke, confinement, dependence and display, (for her sister was a matchmaking lady, a manœuvrer,) for about a twelvemonth. She then left her house and went into Wales-as a governess! Imagine the astonishment caused by this intelligence amongst us all; for I myself, though admiring the untaught damsel almost as much as I loved her, should certainly never have dreamed of her as a teacher. However, she remained in the rich baronet's family where she had commenced her vocation. They liked her apparently, there she was; and again nothing was heard of her for many months, until, happening to call on the friends at whose house I had originally met her, I espied her fair blooming face, a rose amongst roses, at the drawing-room window, and instantly with the speed of light was met and embraced by her at the hall door.

There was not the slightest perceptible difference in her deportment. She still bounded like a fawn, and laughed and clapped her hands like an infant. She was not a day older, or graver, or wiser, since we parted. Her post of tutoress had at least done her no harm, whatever might have been the case with her pupils. The more I looked at her the more I wondered; and after our mutual expressions of pleasure had a little subsided, I could not resist the temptation of saying

"So you are really a governess?”

"Yes."

"And you continue in the same family?"

"Yes."

"And you like your post?"

"O yes! yes!”

"But, my dear Mary, what could induce

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you to go? "Why, they wanted a governess, so I went." "But what could induce them to keep you?" The perfect gravity and earnestness with which this question was put, set her laughing, and the laugh was echoed back from a group at the end of the room, which I had not before noticed —an elegant man in the prime of life showing a portfolio of rare prints to a fine girl of twelve, and a rosy boy of seven, evidently his children.

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"Why did they keep me? Ask them," replied Mary, turning towards them with an arch smile.

"We kept her to teach her ourselves," said the young lady.

"We kept her to play cricket with us," said her brother.

"We kept her to marry," said the gentleman advancing gaily to shake hands with me. She was a bad governess, perhaps; but she is an excellent wifethat is her true vocation."

And so it is. She is, indeed, an excellent wife; and assuredly a most fortunate one. I never saw happiness so sparkling or so glowing; never saw such de votion to a bride or such fondness for a step-mother, as Sir W. S. and his lovely children show to the sweet Cousin Mary.

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"Ungrateful creatures! whence arise
These murmurs, which offend the skies?
Why this disorder? say the cause;
For just are Jove's eternal laws:
Let each his discontent reveal;
To you, Sir Dog, I first appeal.

"Hard is my lot," the hound replies;
"On what fleet nerves the greyhound flies;
While I with weary step and slow,

O'er plains and vales, and mountains go;
The morning sees my chase begun,
Nor ends it till the setting sun."

"When," says the greyhound, "I pursue,
My game is lost or caught in view;
Beyond my sight, the prey 's secure ;
The hound is slow, but always sure
And had I his sagacious scent,
Jove ne'er had heard my discontent."

The lion craved the fox's art;
The fox, the lion's force of heart.
The cock implored the pigeon's flight,
Whose wings were rapid, strong, and light;
The pigeon, strength of wing despised,
And the cock's matchless valor prized;
The fishes wish'd to graze the plain;
The beasts, to skim beneath the main,
Thus, envious of another's state,
Each blamed the partial hand of fate.

The bird of heav'n then cried aloud,
"Jove bids disperse the murm'ring crowd;
The God rejects your idle prayers:

Would ye, rebellious mutineers!

Entirely change your name and nature,

And be the very envied creature?

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