The Stokesley Secret

business after prayers was to deal out the week's allowance-sixpence t

be no fines

art of a fine!" shouted Henry,

t lips expressed

ence," said Susan. "If I haven't

e four farthings," laughed Sam. "

are so good-humoured, Susie, that I can't find it in my heart to demand a fine-or-your hair;

when they were so clean this morning, and I've only just been feeding th

pig," said Miss Fosbrook, unable to help comparing the

oin into her purse, John must needs repeat the stupid old joke, "T

ish you if I hear

e did not put me to bed; and I had such fun! Oh, such fun!" and

boy went on, "I got lots of goodies, for Nurse said she had no notion of no stranger punish

tell Nurse, if

, as Johnnie roared, perhaps that old Nurse might hear, and, to all attempts to find out wheth

n a Monday morning," said Annie, "all the

pe no such thing.-Suppose we try an

this a new and dangerous notion. Sam laughed, and said, "I wi

d David solemn

eakfast-time; and Bessie, who was apt to stick fast in the midst of her bread and milk, a

ly on condition that no brother or sister ever went with her to the store-closet. Susan was highly trustworthy, but Mamma was too wise to let her be tempted by voices b

, who was rummaging in her little box, and David, whom Miss Fosbrook found perched on the l

an he except running and bawling, and a good deal older than even Hal and Sam. Nay, there were times when he raised his steady

the little old man uncrossed his sturdy legs, closed his boo

ig is a profitable invest

d w

heap food," said David, in the words of his book; "o

ee what you want

hay. I asked Nurse, and she said little boys mustn't ask questions; and I asked Purday, and

made one sort of creature to be easily fed, and made

powers of answering them, for he was new in the world, and saw the strangeness of many things to w

t reader; and David did very well, though he made very long stops to look deliberately at any long new word, and could not bear to be told before he had mastered it for himself.

o may be interested in some part of their study, some other branch will be disagreeable; and there is nothing in the whole world to be learnt without drudgery, so it would be unreasonable to expect lessons to be regarded as

ossibly take in without being punished; or that, if they make any exertion, their teach

l abroad; his geography wild; yet though turned back once, he misses the fine by just saying his lessons passably the last time. They perhaps ought, in strict justice, to have been sent back; but Miss Fosbrook was very glad to be saved the uproar that would have en

n, and would have this poor injured Annie tell how old the tiresome man was. "Began to reign at eleven years old, dethroned after twenty-two years; how old was he?" Annie found bursting out crying easier than thinking, and then they all cried out, "O Nanny, the pig!" and Miss Fosbrook had the barbarity to call that foolish crying! What might one cry for, if not at being asked how old Richard II. was? If the fine must be paid, there was no use in stopping; so Annie howled till Miss Fosbrook turned her out to finish on the stairs; and as Nurse Freeman was out with the little ones, the

ing herself, and going over the sentences in a rapid whispering gabble, a serious worry to the governess in listening to Bessie's practising and David's reading, but she thought it would be a hardship to be forbidden to learn in her own way at that moment, and forbore. David was interrupted in his "Little Arthur's History," and l

is taking up his slate, looking a little fussed because there

er. Oh dear! oh dear! all that the gentlemen on a journey

only remembers that this is the third time, and

rook severely, "you nev

r French without a blunder, puts in an unnecessary and no

k. She will not cry away another farthing, but she does fee

ked, and as if she were fast losing her own

eat lime-tree and back. Then take the book into my roo

tely surprised and highly pleased, and she finished off her other lessons swimmingly; but oh, she was glad to be rid of them! Yes, they

erable time in learning her poetry out of the book of Readings, or rather she much preferred reading the verses in other parts of the book to getting perfect in her lesson, and then being obliged to turn her mind to arithmetic. Miss Fos

ave much shorter ones, to be sure, than Mamma, who did sometimes set a long multiplication sum of such a huge size, that it looked as if it were meant

d to a mutiny in the school-room. When it was bad enough to do the thing, ho

rlooked? Miss Fosbrook read on: "4 from 8, 4;

dolorously, as h

en, wha

ry o

l you was meant

had anything to do with the matter, but only that she had hear

ns can you possibly m

tens once," said

sum. See, here it is quit

e. She was not going to att

er words might as well have been spoken to the slate. Bessie neither listened nor took them in. Not all her love for her dear Christabel Angela

an hour ago, was sitting cross-legged in the window, with his slate and pen

even, then-1, 2, 3, 4, 5-the twelve is only 5: the 10 is gone, isn't it? s

ad learnt numeration and addition in her way. She was so delighted, tha

and rubbed his brown-holland elbow

n her own room before the dinner-bell, "it is a comfort to have one pupil

not one whit less weary than the children. She had been learning a very tough lesson too-

n, who do you think had used the