RACHEL. Dear me! but sure ten thousand pounds must be enough to buy every thing that she can want?

TEACHER. Very true indeed, Rachel; and now you have yourself answered the question that puzzled you so much. The use of money is to supply our real wants, according to our station; and it is only in this way that money can affect happiness. Those who have enough for this purpose are rich, however small, comparatively, their means may be. You felt pleased and happy as long as you viewed your savings in this just light. You thought of something you really wanted, and found that you could now purchase it; it was not till you began to think of some things that you did not want-hundreds and thousands of pounds, for instance, that you felt any discontent. I believe, Rachel, that you have every day as much wholesome food as you wish for?

RACHEL. O yes, ma am, always.

TEACHER. And you appear to have warm, neat, and suitable clothes, I think?

RACHEL. Why, yes, middling well for that, thank

ye, ma'am.

TEACHER. You have also a comfortable house, a good bed, and a pleasant room, here, to sit and work in.

RACHEL. Certainly, ma'am.

TEACHER. You have even some luxuries, Rachel; your pretty balsams here, and your little canary There are many persons who give a great deal of money for baubles, which, after all, do not afford

A A

them one half the pleasure that these sweet flowers yield to you. Now, tell me, if you can, what you really want more than you have!—(Rachel pauses.) TEACHER. Come now, do tell me.

RACHEL. I don't know what to mention, particu lar. Sometimes I see things in the shops that I think I should like very much.

TEACHER. But if those are things that would not be suitable to your station, which I rather think is generally the case, they would not make you any happier, but quite the contrary; for they would only render you ridiculous. Don't you think so?

RACHEL. Unless I was a lady.

TEACHER. Well, but you are not a lady; but an industrious little girl; who is so happy as to have learned an honest trade, and so successful as to be furnished with constant employment: be assured, then, that there are few ladies more happily circumstanced than you are and if you have sense and wisdom enough to believe this, and to be content with such things as you have, you are better off with this one pound note in your box, than most people are who can count their ten thousand.

Rachel felt satisfied by this explanation; and she set off soon after, in good spirits, with her teacher; who was so kind as to offer to assist her, in choosing the cloth for her new cloak.

1

XIV.

THE LITTLE BIOGRAPHERS.

Ir was the custom at Mrs. L.'s school, to spend an hour every evening in hearing some interesting book, which was read aloud by the young people alternately, while the hearers were employed at their needles. Mrs. L. herself usually made one of this happy party; and her questions or remarks on what was read rendered it doubly improving and agreeable to them. Having nearly finished a book which had occupied them some time, Mrs. L. announced that the following week they were to begin an interesting volume of Biography; containing, chiefly, the lives of children like themselves; or giving an account of the early life of persons who had afterwards become distinguished. After Mrs. L. had left them, a few of the elder girls assembling round the fire, began to talk about it: among other things, one of them said she wondered, if any body were to write her life, what sort of a thing it would make; adding that she had a great mind to do it herself. Her companions declared it was a good thought; and several of them agreed, that as the next day was a half-holiday, they would devote it to writing their own lives.

This scheme was put in execution accordingly; but, as they most of them found it a more difficult undertaking than they had expected, it would pro

bably never have been heard of afterwards, if Mrs. L. had not happened to enter the school-room when they were thus employed; and upon learning what they were about, she requested a sight of the manuscripts. This, with some reluctance, was complied with; when, having glanced at several of them, she desired to keep possession of them for a few days. Nothing more was heard of it, however, until the following Monday evening, when to their great surprise, Mrs. L. produced the promised volume of Biography, with their own manuscripts inserted here and there among the pages.

"Now," said she, " my intention is, that you shall read through this volume just as you see it; your own lives are to be read in turn with these memoirs; take your places, and we will begin." This arrangement occasioned some embarrassment among our young biographers; but they knew remonstrances would be vain. A few specimens of these manuscripts just as they were written, will be given for the amusement of the reader, together with some extracts from the volume itself. The first life that was read in this collection was that of Lady Jane Grey, whose virtues and accomplishments are so justly celebrated. Her historian thus speaks of her early acquirements.

She

"She spoke and wrote her own language with peculiar accuracy, and the French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, were as natural to her as her own. had also some knowledge of the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic; and all this while comparatively but a child. She had a sedateness of temper, a quickness

of apprehension, and a solidity of judgment, that enabled her not only to become a mistress of languages, but of sciences also; so that she thought, spoke, and reasoned on subjects of the greatest importance, in a manner that excited general surprise. With these extraordinary endowments she had so much mildness, humility, and modesty, that she assumed no pride in consequence of her acquisitions." When this life was concluded, the children unanimously petitioned Mrs. L. that none of theirs might be read that evening; but she would not yield to their entreaties, and desired the reader to proceed with the subjoined manuscript, which was as follows: "Miss M. P. was the daughter of respectable parents, and was born at W- -, in Middlesex; a very pleasant town, with two churches and a bridge. When she was nine years old, she went to pay a visit to her cousins at Norwich, which she enjoyed very much, and stayed half-a-year: she went in the mail coach. At twelve years of age she came to Mrs. L.'s school; at which time she was four feet nine inches high; a light complexion, eyes and hair the same. At school she has not, perhaps, made quite so much proficiency as could be wished. Her disposition- her natural

she was rather.

temperas to her disposition"

Here this narrative broke off abruptly; the writer having declared, when she had proceeded thus far, that "she could not write hers at all."

The following evening they read the interesting life of Frances Maria, of Rochebeaucour; "the daughter of a poor tax-gatherer, in Switzerland;