continually. I will tell you exactly how they lived and spent their time:-Emily and Lucy slept together in a little closet on one side of their father and mother's room; and Henry had a little room on the other side, where he slept. As soon as the children got up, they used to go into their father and mother's room to prayers; after which Henry went with his father into the garden, while Lucy and Emily made their beds and rubbed the furniture: afterward they all met at breakfast, dressed neatly but very plain. At breakfast the children ate what their mamma gave them, and seldom spoke till they were spoken to. After breakfast, Betty and John were called in, and all went to prayers. Then Henry went into his papa's study, to his lessons; and Lucy and Emily staid with their mamma, working and reading, till twelve o'clock, when they used to go out to take a walk all together: sometimes they went to the schools, and sometimes they went to see a poor person. When they came in, dinner was ready. After dinner, the little girls and their mamma worked, while Henry read to them till tea-time: and after tea Lucy and Emily played with their doll, and worked for it; and Henry busied himself in making some little things of wood, which his papa showed him how to do; and so they spent their time, till Betty and John came in to evening prayers: then the children had each of them a baked apple, and went to bed.

Now all this time the little ones were in the presence of their papa and mamma, and kept carefully from breaking out into open sin by the watchful eyes of their dear parents. One day it happened, when they had been living a long time in this happy way, that Lucy said to her mother, "Mamma, I think that Emily and Henry and I are much better children than we used to be: we have not been punished for a very long time."

"My dear," said Mrs. Fairchild, "do not boast or think well of yourself; it is always a bad sign when people boast of themselves: God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.' James iv. 6. If you have not done any very naughty thing lately, it is not because there is any goodness or wisdom in you, but because your papa and I have been always with you, carefully watching and guiding you from morning till night."

That same evening a letter came for Mr. Fairchild,

from an old lady who lived about four miles off, begging that he and Mrs. Fairchild would come over, if it was convenient, to see her, the next day, to settle some business of consequence. This old lady's name was Mrs. Goodriche, and she lived in a very neat little house just under a hill, with Sukey her maid. It was the very house in which Mrs. Howard lived about fifty years ago, as my grandmother knew very well, having been often there when she was a little girl.

When Mr. Fairchild got the letter, he ordered John to get the horse ready by daybreak next morning; and to put the pillion on it for Mrs. Fairchild: so Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild got up very early; and, when they had kissed their children, who were still asleep, they set off.

Now it happened very unluckily, that Mrs. Fairchild, at this time, had given Betty leave to go for two or three days to see her father, and she had not yet returned; so there was nobody left in the house to take care of the children but John. And now I will tell you how these children spent the day while their papa and.

mamma were out.

When Lucy and Emily awoke, they began playing in their beds. Emily made babies of the pillows, and Lucy pulled off the sheets and tied them round her, in imitation of Lady Noble's long-trained gown: and thus they spent their time till Henry came to the door to tell them that breakfast was ready. "And I have persuaded John," said Henry, "to make us toast and butter; and it looks so nice! Make haste and come down: do, sisters, do!" And he continued to drum upon the door with a stick until his sisters were dressed. Emily and Lucy put on their clothes as quickly as they could, and went down stairs with their brother, without praying, washing themselves, combing their hair, making their bed, or doing any one thing they ought to have done.

John had, indeed, made a large quantity of toast and butter: but the children were not satisfied with what John had made for when they had eaten all which he had provided, they would toast more themselves, and put butter on it before the fire, as they had seen Betty do: so the hearth was covered with crumbs and grease, and they wasted almost as much as they ate.

After breakfast, they took out their books to learn their lessons; but they had eaten so much that they could not learn with any pleasure; and Lucy, who

thought she would be very clever, began to scold Henry and Emily for their idleness; and Henry and Emily, in their turn, found fault with her: so that they began to dispute, and would soon, I fear, have proceeded to something worse, if Henry had not spied a little pig in the garden. "Oh! sisters," said he, "there is a pig in the garden, in the flower-bed! Look! look! and what mischief it will do. Papa will be very angry. Come, sisters, let us hunt it out."

So saying, down went Henry's book, and away he ran into the garden, followed by Emily and Lucy, running as fast as they could. They soon drove the pig out of the garden, and it would have been well if they had stopped there; but, instead of that, they followed it down into the lane. Now, there was a place where a spring ran across the lane, over which was a narrow bridge, for the use of people walking that way. But the pig did not stand to look for the bridge, but went splash, splash, through the midst of the water; and after him went Henry, Lucy, and Emily, though they were up to their knees in mud and dirt.

In this dirty condition they ran on till they came close to a house where a farmer and his wife lived, whose name was Freeman. These people were not such a lived in the fear of God, neither did they bring up thei children well; on which account Mr. Fairchild had ofter forbidden Lucy, and Emily, and Henry, to go to their house. However, when the children were opposite this house, Mrs. Freeman saw them through the kitchen window; and seeing they were covered with mud, she came out and brought them in, and dried their clothes by the fire; which was, so far, very kind of her, only the children should not have gone into the house, as they had been so often forbidden by their parents.

Mrs. Freeman would have had them stay all day and play with their children; and Henry and his sisters would have been very glad to accept her invitation, but they were afraid: so Mrs. Freeman let them go; but, before they went, she gave them each a large piece of cake, and something sweet to drink, which, she said, would do them good. Now this sweet stuff was cider; and as they were never used to drink any thing but water, it made them quite tipsy for a little while; so that when they got back into the lane, first one tumbled 'down, and then another; and their faces became flushed,

and their heads began to ache, so that they were forced to sit down for a time under a tree, on the side of the lane, and there they were when John came to find them; for John, who was in the stable when they ran out of the garden, was much frightened when he returned to the house, and could not find them there.

"Ah, you naughty children," said he, when he found them, "you have almost frightened me out of my life: Where have you been?"

"We have been in the lane,” said Lucy, blushing. This was not all the truth: but one fault always leads to another.

So John brought them home, and locked them up in their play-room, while he got their dinner ready.

When the children found themselves shut up in their play-room, and could not get out, they sat themselves down, and began to think how naughty they had been. They were silent for a few minutes; at last Lucy spoke:

"Oh, Henry! oh, Emily? how naughty we have been! And yet I thought I would be so good when papa and mamma went out, so very good! What shall we say when papa and mamma come home?"

Then all the children began to cry. At length Henry said,

"I'll tell you what we will do, Lucy; we will be good all the evening; we will not do one naughty thing."

"So we will, Henry," said Emily. "When John lets us out, how good we will be; and then we can tell the truth, that we were naughty in the morning, but we were good all the evening.'

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John made some nice apple-dumplings for the children; and when they were ready, and he had put some butter and sugar upon them (for John was a goodnatured man), he fetched the children down; and after they had eaten as much apple-dumpling as they thought proper, he told them they might play in the barn, bidding them not to stir out of it till supper-time.

Henry and Lucy and Emily were delighted with this permission; and, as Lucy ran along to the barn with her brother and sister, she said, "Now let us be very good. We are not to do any thing naughty all this evening." "We will be very good indeed," answered Emily. "Better than we ever were in all our lives,” added Henry.

So they all went into the barn; and when John fast. ened them in, he said to himself, "Sure they will be safe now, till I have looked to the pigs and milked the cow; for there is nothing in the barn but straw and hay, they cannot hurt themselves with that, sure. But John was mistaken. As soon as he was gone, Henry spied a swing, which Mr. Fairchild had made in the barn for the children, but which he never allowed them to use when he was not with them, because swings are very dangerous things, unless there are very careful persons to use them. The seat of the swing was tied up to the side of the barn, above the children's reach, as Mr. Fairchild thought.

"Oh! Lucy," said Henry, "there is the swing. There can be no harm in our swinging a little. If papa were here, I am sure he would let us swing. If you and Emily will help to lift me up, I will untie it and let it down and then we will swing so nicely!"

So Emily and Lucy lifted Henry up; and he untied the swing, and let it down in its right place: but as he was getting down, his coat caught upon a bit of wood on the side of the barn, and was much torn. However, the children did not trouble themselves very much about this accident: they got one by one into the swing, and amused themselves for some time without any mischance. First Emily got into the swing; then Henry ; then Lucy; and then Emily would get in again. "Now, Lucy," she said, "swing me high, and I will shut my eyes: you can't think how pleasant it is to swing with one's eyes shut. Swing me higher! swing me higher!"

So she went on calling to Lucy, and Lucy trying to swing her higher and higher; till at last the swing turned, and down came Emily on the floor! There happened, providentially, to be some straw on the floor, or she would have been killed. As it was, however, she was sadly hurt: she lay for some minutes without speaking, and her mouth and nose poured out blood.

Henry and Lucy thought she was dead; and, oh. how frightened they were! They screamed so violently, that John came running to see what was the matter: and poor man! he was sadly frightened when he saw Emily lying on the floor covered with blood. He lifted her up, and brought her into the house; he saw she was not dead, but he did not know how much she might be hurt. When he had washed her face from the