view of getting rid of her for the greater portion of the day, than from any wish for her instruction.

Mrs. Birch, for some reason which I never could learn, appeared to entertain a particular dislike to this child, and took every occasion to manifest it. Of many instances of her harshness, I will adduce one. It was on a fine quiet summer afternoon, the school room door was open, and admitted a delicious fragrance from the neighbouring hay-fields; the bee was gathering his treasures from the little flower garden; and some five or six cows were reposing in an adjoining meadow, under the shade of a clump of elms which grew in one corner of it. The afternoon was so still, that I could hear the sea rippling over the pebbles on the shore, although it was almost a dead calm. The blackbird, whose cage was suspended from a beam in the ceiling, was singing as blithely as if he had never known what liberty was, and I was envying him for being so merry, and having no spelling-lesson to learn. Everything, in fact, appeared quiet and happy, but Mrs. Birch; and she had lost her small patrimony of good humour with her last half ounce of Scotch snuff,

which the kitten had clawed off the table upon the sanded floor, where it was trodden upon by half the school, before the old lady discovered her misfortune. It happened that Katy Harford had been called up, with another little girl, to say her lesson, which she did very perfectly, except the last word; and that, unluckily, was one of three syllables, and, as was unanimously voted by the scholars, had no business in the book. Both governess and pupil were brought to a stand; and, as the old lady did not happen to know the word herself, she was the more angry with Katy for not giving her the information, for which she had previously applied to the parish clerk without success, for he affirmed that there was no such word in either the Bible or Prayer-book. She snatched the book out of Katy's hand, and, declaring that it was the easiest word in the whole lesson, began to beat her most severely on the arm with the rod, which I verily believe she took to bed with her, for it was never out of her fingers.

Just at that moment, a butterfly flew into the room, and perched upon Mrs. Birch's left shoulder. It was of uncommon beauty; and, if not the Emperor of Morocco himself, was cer

tainly a member of the imperial family. Now, butterfly-hunting was one of the strongest propensities of my childhood, and it had been well for me if the passion had passed away with that happy and innocent season, and not accompanied me into a graver and more advanced period of my life. The temptation, in this instance, was not to be withstood. I instantly climbed the back of the old lady's arm-chair, made a dart at the painted insect, missed it, tumbled forward, and, after a momentary participation in the august seat of empire, floundered upon the floor, overturning, in my fall, a decoction of rare herbs, which she had placed in a pitcher, by her side, to cool. It was an odd situation in which to put it for such a purpose, for I ever found it the hottest place in the room.

"It is an ill wind that blows no one any good ;" and my unlucky accident had the effect of transferring the old lady's indignation, as well as its representative, the rod, from Katy to me. After her first three blows, which, though designed exclusively for my benefit, were equally divided between her favourite black cat, a threelegged stool, and myself, I scrambled under a chest of drawers, whence neither threats nor

persuasions could dislodge me, until Alice, my grandmother's servant, came for me, with the donkey, at four o'clock; and she, I verily believe, would have scratched the old lady's eyes out, if she had ventured to lay a finger on me in her presence.

sors.

But Mrs. Birch found other means of gratifying her dislike to Katy Harford, than through the medium of the rod. On any occasion, on which the little orphan-for such, in the absence of her father, she might well be termed -suffered injury from her schoolfellows, the governess always took the part of the aggresThe consequence of this was, that Katy was constantly ill treated by such of her companions as the certainty of escaping punishment encouraged in their mischief. Some wicked children, in particular, were in the habit of reproaching her for having neither father nor mother, which I was wont to think sufficiently cruel; but when one of the elder girls asserted that Katy never had any parents, I was so indignant, that I expressed, in no very temperate language, I remember, my abhorrence of so foul a calumny. My antagonist had an answer at her fingers' ends, and rewarded my

interference by such a box on the ear, as not only made me dumb, but occasioned me to be deaf for a week afterwards. It is to a salutary recollection of this event, that I attribute the circumstance of my being, at this moment, a very obedient and orderly husband; for I never hear the voice of one of the fair sex raised a note above the amicable pitch, but I feel a certain tingling about my ear, which carries me back some quarter of a century or so in my life.

Poor Katy, who was a meek-spirited girl, was no match for her tormenters, and usually gave vent to her feelings, upon such occasions, in a flood of tears. She would, indeed, have had a sad life of it, if one of the elder girls, whose name was Mary Fallowfield, had not taken compassion upon Katy's forlorn condition, and interfered between her and her persecutors, who never ventured on ill treating her in Mary's presence. But the kindness of the latter did not confine itself to the defensive, for she would frequently invite her protegée to her own home, a comfortable farmhouse, where Katy met with far more kindness than she did in the dwelling of her uncle and aunt, who, having children of