LESSON XLI.

THE BLACK BONNET.

1. "MAMMA! I don't like that old woman at all," said Rosamond to her mother; “I am sorry, ma'am, that you promised to go and see her in the country, and to take me with you; for I dislike that woman, mamma!"

2. "I will not take you with me to her house, if you do not wish to go there, Rosamond; but why you dislike that lady I cannot even guess; you never saw her before this morning, and you know nothing about her."

3. "That is true, mamma; but I really do dislike her I disliked her from the first moment she came into the room.

4. "For what reason?”

5. "Reason, mamma! I do not know—I have no particular reason.'

6. "Well, particular or not, give me some

reason."

7. "I cannot give you a reason, mamma, for I do not know why I dislike the lady; but you know, that very often or at least, sometimeswithout any reason, without knowing why-we like, or dislike people."

8. "We !-Speak for yourself, Rosamond; for my part, I always have a reason for liking, or disliking people."

9. "Mamma, I dare say I have some reason too if I could find it out; but I never thought about it."

10. "I advise you to think about it, and find it out. Silly people sometimes like, or take a fancy, as they call it, at first sight, to persons who do not deserve to be liked; who have bad tempers, bad characters, bad qualities."

11. "Sómetimes silly people take a dislike, or, as they call it, an antipathy, to those who have good qualities, good characters, and good tempers."

12. "That would be unlucky, unfortunate," said Rosamond, beginning to look grave.

13. "Yes; unlucky, unfortunate, for the silly people; because they might, if they had their choice, choose to live with the bad, instead of living with the good; choose to live with those who would make them unhappy, instead of those who would make them happy.'

14. "That would be a sad thing, indeed, mammà-very sad. Perhaps the lady to whom I took a dislike, or-what do you call it?-an antipathy, may be a very good woman."

15. "She is a very good woman, Rosamond."

16. "Mamma, I will not be one of the silly people, I will not have an antipathy. What is an antipathy, mamma?"

17. "A feeling of dislike, for which we can give no reason."

18. Rosamond stood still, and silent, considering deeply, and then suddenly bursting out laughing, she laughed for some time without being able to speak.

19. At last, composing herself, she said, "Mamma, I am laughing at the very silly reason I was going to give you for disliking that lady. Only because she had an ugly crooked pinch in the front of her black bonnet."

20. "Perhaps that was a sufficient reason for disliking the black bonnet," said Rosamond's mother, "but not quite sufficient for disliking the person who wore it."

21. "No, mamma: because she does* not always wear it, I suppose. She does not sleep in it, I dare say; and, if I were to see her without it, I might like her."

22. "Possibly, you might."

23. "But, mamma, there is another reason why I disliked her, and this, perhaps, is a bad reason; but still I cannot help disliking her; the thing which makes me dislike her, she cannot take off when she pleases. I cannot see her without it, mamma; this is a thing I must always dislike-I wonder whether you took notice of that shocking thing?"

24. "When you have told me what the shocking thing is, I shall be able to tell you.What do you mean, Rosamond?"

25. "Then, mamma, you did not see it." 26. "It, what?"

* duz.

27. "When her glove was off, did you not see the shocking finger, mamma, the stump of a finger, and a great scar all over the back of her hand?—I am glad she did not offer to shake hands with me; I think I could not have touched her hand; I should have held mine back."

28. "She would not have offered that hand to you; she knows that it is disagreeable.-Did you observe she gave me her other hand?"

29. "That was right. So she knows it is disagreeable. Poor woman! how sorry, and ashamed of it she must be."

30. "She has no reason to be ashamed, it does her honour.'

31. "Does her honour!-tell me why, you know all about it, then-tell me, mamma.

32. "She burned that hand in saving her little grandaughter from being burnt to death. The child going too near the fire when she was in a room by herself, set fire to her frock; the muslin was in flames instantly; as she could not put out the flame, she ran screaming to the door; the servants came-some were afraid, and some did not know what to do.

33. "Her grandmother heard the child scream -ran up stairs-saw her clothes all on fire. She instantly rolled her up in a rug, which iay before the hearth. The kind grandmother, however, did not escape unhurt, though she did not at the time know, or feel, how much.

34. "But when the surgeon had dressed the child's burns, then she showed him her own hand.

It was so terribly burnt that it was found necessary to cut off one joint of the finger. The scar which you saw is the mark of the burn."

35. "Dear, good, courageous woman!” cried Rosamond." Oh, mammà, if I had known all this. Now I do know all this, how differently I feel-how unjust-how foolish, to dislike herand for a pinch in a black bonnet-and for that

scar.

36. "Mamma, I would not draw back my hand if she were to shake hands with me now. -Mamma, I wish to go and see her now. Will you take me with you to her house in the country?"

37. "I will, my dear."

LESSON XLII.

THE OLD SERVANT.

1. Mr. Leonard, though possessed of a good heart, excellent abilities, and an upright mind, did not at all make his family happy; the violence of his temper prevailed over these good, qualities and sometimes rendered him the most unamiable of men.