"O yes, it will, ma'am! I likes the country best."

"I am afraid you are not used to hard work. Did you ever scour a room?"

"I can work harder than people think, ma'am."

"Well, but, did you ever?"

"O ma'am, there's nothing I mind setting my hand to."

"Who will recommend you?"

"Mrs. Prout knows me very well, ma'am." "And so does Mrs. Cheerlove!" said I, laughing. "Oh, Harry! you impostor! I found you out directly!"

"Did you though?" said he, bursting into a fit of laughter, and throwing his disguises right and left, till he stood before me in his original dress. "Phillis didn't; and a good fright I've given her. Served her right, too! Listeners never hear any good of themselves, Mrs. Phillis,"

added he, as she put her head a little way into

the room.

66

Why, I thought I heard a man's voice, and it gave me quite a turn," said she, advancing in a hesitating way towards us; "and so I did,—for, whoever would have thought of its being you, Master Prout!"

"You didn't, it's certain," said he, rolling his things up into a bundle, "or you wouldn't have tried to set me against the place !—so there I have you! Recollect, I'm a lawyer, and can take advantage of you at any time."

She was, for once, without one word to say. "Yes, yes," added he, "I've had a grudge against you this long while for calling me Master Prout, when all the world knows I've been Mr. Prout ever so long. One would think I took my meals in the nursery. So, mind you, Phillis, if ever you are uncivil to your mistress again, or ever more call me master, I'll show

you

I am

And, as for

your master, in one way or another. your not having answered the bell when Mrs. Cheerlove wanted you, because you were making

a cap, why, sooner than keep her waiting for that, I'd have worn a brown-paper cap like a carpenter. So now go and make the kettle boil -very boiling, indeed, for I'm come to drink tea with Mrs. Cheerlove; and we Londoners don't admire tea made with lukewarm water, I assure you."

Off she went, with "Well, I'm sure!" on her lips, but with by no means a displeased look on her face; and I could not help thinking, "Some people may steal a horse, while others dare not look over a hedge. She has taken a good deal more from Master Prout' than she would from Mrs. Cheerlove."

The Stone House, December 27.

When will wonders cease! I can hardly believe I am awake and in my senses,-yet so it is: —yes, here I am, spending the Christmas holidays with the Pevenseys :

"And nothing meets my eye but sights of bliss."

They had only been at home a few days when Arbell came in, all smiles, to ask how I was, and to say that her mamma had thought a great deal about me; and that it had occurred to her that as I was an invalid, and she was an invalid, we should suit one another much better than if our positions were more dissimilar; and that though we were not equal to a merry Christmas, she did not see why we might not have a pleasant one. So she had resolved on my occupying a certain bow-windowed blue room, with dressing-room attached, during the holidays, and I should keep my own hours, and choose my own companions, and dine early, and see as much or as little of the family as I liked. She would not take no for an answer, and she would send the close carriage for me the very next day.

Well, as she would not take "No," for an answer, what could I say but "Yes?" and "very much obliged," too. It put me quite in a flutter, but a flutter of pleasurable excitement; for I have come to think the Pevenseys one of the most interesting families in the whole world.

It was

very satisfactory to think that my wardrobe was in fine order; that my best caps, handkerchiefs, &c., were all beautifully got up, and ready for immediate packing; that my new black silk dress had not even been worn; and that I had got rid of the neuralgia just long enough not to be afraid even of changing my bed.

I am sure the real danger will be in returning to my own house! I have always considered it sufficiently snug; but the walls are so thin, compared with these; and there are many chinks and fissures we are obliged to stop up by ingenious contrivances, similar to what sailors effect by means of shakings. Whereas here, if you want to open a window, you may, indeed, do so with ease; but if you want it shut, it really will shut, without admitting a current of air strong enough to blow out a candle! or making a noise like the roaring of a lion, through some undetected orifice, as mine occasionally does at home, when least expected or wished. I determined Phillis should enjoy herself in my absence, and therefore permitted her to invite her widowed sister with. her small baby, to