and say, 'Excuse me, I've not been able to follow you, my pattern is so perplexing;' and then they resume their study of shades, and stitches, and devices, till poor I am driven murmuring to you, in the certainty that at all events I shall have an argument, if I fail of an ally."

"I hope, my dear girl, that your having an argument with me will not prove that you have not often an ally also. Now I'll prove that I'm your ally, by trying to find some intellectual recreation for the winter evenings of the next month; and as to argument, that can never be wanting while you are so charmingly perverse; but I venture to tell you, Etty, that kind as your heart is, and dearly as I know you love us all, yet your nimble tongue has rather saucily caricatured us and our capabilities of making our own amusement. There's our mother, so far from yielding to disappointment, she will be happy if she sees us so anywhere. Our aunts, old as they are, are as sufficient to their own enjoyment, and as capable of promoting that of others, as any women I ever met with, particularly aunt Anna, whose deafness, so far from making her dull and despondent, has set her to cultivate the stores of her own mind; and how genially does she devote to our amusement the wisdom she has learned through her privation and sorrow! Then Edward, I'm sure, would rejoice to get his daily readings and study over, to make the evenings cheerful by his conversation; and for Ellen and Jane, I never found, Etty, that swift fingers made either a slow tongue or a dull brain."

"Ah! but you forget or slur over all mention of our troubles, which I'm sure I'm not wrong in thinking should have been put aside from our thoughts for a time, if possible. Our circumstances, you know, are so altered, that Ellen and I must leave home to teach, after the Christmas vacation, for I see no chance of our getting pupils at home; and Jane's account of her duties as a governess does not make the prospect very inviting. Not that I mind for myself; I know people actively employed are usually happy, and I've plenty of what you call perversity and other bad names, but in my vocabulary it is energy and self-assertion. Dear Ellen, with all her acquirements, you must grant is very unfit for contending with difficulties; and then the chief grief is our mother and her aged sisters left here alone in this dull place-dull always, doubly so when we young folks have taken wing. And I'm not unmindful of Edward, or of you, Philip; after all your fagging at that school, you must want recreation. I should like to know who needs it more than an usher from a large school? Now going to London just to end this year and welcome the next, would have amused us, and kept us from thinking so much of the approaching separation—indeed, would have deadened the shock when the time really came."

"Well, well! that's all wandering from the point. I'm not saying it would not have been pleasant to have gone to London, but that, by the unexpected journey of our uncle to Scotland, is prevented entirely. What we have to do is to give it

up cheerfully, and to make these last weeks pleasant both for present enjoyment and for future remembrance. During the short days we shall all have employment enough-Edward and I with our books, for I want his help in some studies I intend to pursue; Ellen and Jane will stitch as you say, and do many pleasant things beside; our mother and aunts will forget their disappointment, in their usual occupations of guiding the house, and visiting the poor, (whose condition at this season of the year, permit me to say, should silence all murmurs on the lips of the well-fed, clothed, and lodged;) and you, Etty, will show your energy and self-assertion' by running to and fro, remarking upon all, and-and-shall I say? perhaps doing nothing."

เ

"Who caricatures now?" interposed Etty.

"But in the evening," continued Philip, smiling at the interruption, "we shall all assemble at the tea-table, and I propose we bring a short essay on some subject, and after it is read make it the basis of a conversation. Depend on it, if we all enter into the spirit of this plan, we shall need no company but our own circle, require no music but our own voices, crave for no festivities but our own laughter, and seek for no excitements but in hearing your perversities, Etty."

"An essay every night! what a feasible plan! why we need have nothing to do all day but to write. What a delightful contemplation!"

"No, not every night; three, if not four, evenings a week, bring engagements religious or

charitable. Of course I mean no duties to be neglected. I only calculate on three disengaged evenings every week at most, and on those we can make trial of my plan."

"What plan is that?" said an old lady, who, unobserved by the speakers, had just entered the room, holding an ear-trumpet to her ear, and caught the last word.

Explanations of the previous conversation followed, calm and practical on the part of the brother, half laughing and wholly perverse on that of the sister.

"Well, well," said the old lady gaily, "I like the plan amazingly, and as Etty perhaps will be too idle, or too self-willed to contribute essays, or suggest subjects, we'll turn her perversity to account, and she shall be the critic of our company -not writing herself will qualify her to find out the faults of those who do."

66

Ah, aunt Anna," said Philip, "I knew you would agree to my plan-you do more-for you make even our adversary of use in promoting our amusement."

There was a kind smile in the eyes of Etty that contradicted the curve of her lip, as she lifted up her hands and exclaimed, "Adversary! what a dignified position you assign me!"

Without further remark the trio went to join the rest of the family, and communicate their plan, which was readily approved. Indeed, the new current that was thus given to their thoughts soon. carried away all traces of the disappointment the

post of that morning had brought them. And when and how they should begin what Philip called their "HAPPY EVENINGS," was the engrossing theme.

The reader will have understood from the foregoing conversation the number and general circumstances of the family here introduced. It will only be necessary in further explanation to say, that the mother of the young people, whom we shall call Mrs. Vernon, had been many years a widow, with a very limited income. Her two maiden sisters, Anna and Patty, engaged from their youth in the work of tuition, had come, on her widowhood, to reside with her, and brought four East Indian children with them, to educate along with Ellen and Etty. They had also brought up the young friend named Jane, the orphan daughter of a deceased friend, without any other remuneration than her grateful love, and the luxury of the kindly deed. Nearly two years previously to the commencement of our narrative, the Anglo-Indian pupils had returned to Madras, and their places were not filled by others. Fashionable schools and younger governesses were preferred; though some negotiations had been long pending with Indian friends for other pupils; and thus the ample sum withdrawn from the household by the departure of their former pupils, necessitated some changes. Jane, eager to prove both her competence and also her gratitude for the advantages she had received, had taken a situation as governess, and had held it about a year; but though she did not exactly