Rose!' said Charles, trying to lift her. "I wont be carried-set me down, Charles.'

'Rose and I can walk over the fields while you go round,' said Elizabeth ; 'will not that do?" Rose set off very slowly, dragging her feet, and hanging upon her poor cousin in a most unmerciful manner. Are you quite sure you know the way, Rose?' said Elizabeth. Rose began a history of all the times she had crossed those fields, and of her losing her way in some other fields, and of her papa's losing his way in Wales, in a gig, and before she had finished the last story, she had so far forgotten her fatigue, that she was chasing a dragon fly. It is fine to see how the eyes or the tongue sometimes rest the legs! or to speak more correctly, how little attention we pay to our bodily feelings,

4

when the mind is engaged on some

other object.

'Here they are! I said they would be at the turnpike before us,' cried Arthur, as soon as he spied the white frocks at a distance. 'Come on, Arabella.' They had found no letters, which was a great disappointment to Arabella, and she felt by no means inclined to move briskly. She had also a particular dislike to being hurried, and she did not admire the tone in which Arthur spoke. 'Look at her! now is not she creeping on purpose?' said Arthur. Do Charles come on with me, and leave her to crawl by herself.' Arabella made an effort, in spite of this unpleasant speech; and she succeeded so far as to quicken but she neither looked nor felt very good humored.

her pace,

Mr and Mrs Samson were in the

garden when their little visiters arrived, and after a hearty shake of the hand all round, Mr Samson called Charles to follow him into the orchard. 'Now you shall see how the bark is growing again on my pear trees, where you and Frederic helped me to strip them; and Charles, I should like you to see my phleum pratense. I have transplanted it back again into wet ground; and today we will take it up and see whether it has become fibrous-rooted again.'

Fibrous roots are the stringy ones, are not they?' said Arthur. 'But can plants change their roots?'

Yes, sometimes,' said Charles, 'when they are put into a different soil. This grass, this phleum pratense, had a fibrous root at first; and when it had been for some time in dry ground, it was bulbous rooted, like a crocus or onion, because bulbous roots do not require so much moisture.'

'How very wonderful!' said Elizabeth; but I thought all the parts of a plant were so regular that you could tell from the flower, what sort of root and leaves it must have.'

'You should study botany, young ladies,' said Mr Samson; 'you should look into these matters. What say you, Miss Hervey ?'

6

'I am rather afraid of the classes and orders,' said Elizabeth; but I should like very much to learn all the curious facts if I could learn them without-'

'So-so,' said Mr Samson, interrupting her, 'you would pick out the pretty stories, and leave all the scientific arrangement. That will never do, my dear; and you do not know how much pleasure you would lose. Tell me now, for I dare say you are a tidy young la

dy, did you never find pleasure in sorting your drawers?'

Elizabeth had not always been a particularly tidy young lady,' and she blushed very much at this question. 'What say you, Arabella?' Arabella said nothing.

6

I have been very happy arranging my baby house,' said Elizabeth, and I remember it used to be a great treat to be allowed to put mamma's store room to rights.'

'If you were a linguist,' said Mr Samson,-'a student of language, that is -I could give you another comparison. When you see, we will say part of a verb, is there no pleasure in finding it out exactly, and tracing it home, and fitting it into its place? Am I right, Charles ?'

There is a pleasure in knowing one's lesson thoroughly, if that is