The Two Sides of the Shield

ysie eagerly, as her mother

ad any,' s

s, have been everywhere with us. And, besides, there's Basto, the big Pyren

ther dogs or cats; and the little sp

' said Mysie; 'won't you come? Her

of their own. She was afraid to be left standing on the steps alone lest any amount of animals or boys should fall on her there, so she consented to accompan

e ever been in. All that is wanting is that papa w

em of their own 'when papa came home,' when all good things were to happen. Behind there were large stable-yards and offices, too large for Lady Merrifield's one horse and one pony, and thus available for the children's menagerie of rabbits, guinea-pigs, magpie, and the like. On the way Mysie was only too happy to explain

of names and

e by her side, was flinging peas to a number of pigeons, grey, white, and brown, who fluttered round her. Valetta and Fergus were on the granary steps, throwing meal and sop mixed together to a host of cackling, struggling fowls, who tried to leap ov

big bell gathered all the children up together into a race to the house. There was another scurry to change shoes and wash hands, and then Mysie conducted her cousin into a large, cheerful, wainscoted room on the ground floor, with deep windows, and

stament was given out and read verse by verse, to the end of the subject, which was the Parable of the Tares, and then Lady Merrifield

two days in the week there was Old Testament, two days New, one day Catechism, one day Prayer-book. Only ha

, as well as their brothers, had Latin lessons in the dining-room with the curate. The two girls and Fergus only we

y Latin, my dear?

te convinced that the professor w

said Aunt Lilias, and Dolores indi

e schoolroom piano to Valetta, and Fergus to write copies and to do sums, while Miss Vincent examined the new-comer, which

d her. They seemed to her of no use, and quite out of her beat. No dates, none of the subject she had specially got up. Why, if Miss Vincen

n occupations all round, resulting in her having to read French aloud, which she knew she did well; but it was

t and the governess, 'Languages fair, but she

ust not know more than these children cast up and down in a soldier's life; and as if her Fraulein, with all her diploma

he drawer, and produced a child's pinafore, which she was desired to hem. Each, however, had a quarter of an hour's reading aloud of history to do in turn, all from one big book, a history of Rome, and there was a map hung up over the black board, where they were in turn to poi

e spoke of A-pious-Claudius. Lady Merrifield hushed this at once, and the girl read in a bewildered manner, and as one affronted. She saw he aunt looking at her piece of hemming, which, to say the truth, would not have done credit to Primrose, and the recollection came across he

eing her turn to tidy the room; an

w to hold your needl

k,' respond

resolved that these children should learn better than I did. Do you like a take a run with Mysie before dinner? Or there is the amusing shelf. Books may be taken out af

books than with the cousins. There were fewer than she expected, and nothin

aid to Mysie, who came to assist her c

ut of the story, and it's nicer than dying, but they can have lots of nice adventures first. But here are the 'Feats on the Fiords' and the 'Crofton Boys'

any books o

ike Gill's 'Christian Year,' or my 'Little Pillow,' or Val's 'Children in the Wood,' we bring it to mother, and if it is nice, we keep it here, for every o

if it had been

u got ma

em knocked about by all the boys,

aid Mysie, with rather a craving for the new b

It's nonsens

y Merrifield, who was looking at some exer

should read our books, if she won't give y

em. No, my dear, you need not be afraid; you shall keep your books in your own room, and nobody shall medd

sant, and almost homelike, for her books and little knickknacks had been put out, not quite as she preferred, but still so as to make the place seem like her own. Sh

mma le

aid Dolores; 'I'm not going to le

e them away, when she said she

do if she didn't happ

us not to

ouldn'

r question; and she said, 'Well, father never makes any

ou get bo

d, has lots given to her, but nobody bothers about

ter read the 'Talisman,' and then yo

ther had to get it up for his holiday ta

once had the 'Talisman' to do, and the big ones were so delighted. Mamma read it out

; 'but-but the book is stupid and out of date! I

erfectly astounded, and Do

or you that have never lived in

advantages!

hat advantages ar

ed into the dining-room, where the family were again col

first pause, after every one w

hat are a

you kno

d I said we have. And she says I

g with all their might. Their mot

antages of some sort, and pe

I know,' c

are they?'

a!' cried th

was a general acclamation, which inspired gentle Mysie with the fear that her mo

ake you lik

nt,' returned Dolores,

you mean?'

lectures, nor master, and onl

to be heard beyond her nei

t to be doing les

governesses ne

't know that Miss Vincent has a First Class Cambridge Certificate in

y of seeing more clever people, and getting superior teaching of some kind, but

shed, and decidedly angry

uage to her. Fergus and Primrose wanted to go out in search of blackberries. Gillian undertook to drive them in the cart, but as the donkey had on

r are perilous

, it is down, not up the hill, and I'm su

ho will

and find them stuck fast in the lane, Sancho with his feet spread out wide, Gill with three or four sticks

d Gillian. 'You'l

nkeys!' sa

shouldn't want S

able. Val and Fergus declared they would go too, till they heard that Nurse Halfpenny s

o fun at all, and turned to mamma to beg her t

id mamma, laughing; 'she t

othes! Spoilin

ith the old Halfpenny, Gill?

r pretty well when it is only the little ones

e will make us sit in the donkey-cart all t

me,' intreated Valetta, and m

e to vex her when she thin

little fellow, expressed it, and mamma, after a little consideration, consented to drive the pony-carriage in that direction, and to announce to Nurse Halfpenny that she herself would tak

id Mysie, and

a bear with

rabtree?' as

at lash she got hold of his 'Holiday House' and threw it into the

ven't y

y let us have it on condition we made a sol

ith that dreadful thing-w

soon know,'

orked with consternation. 'She never hits us, not if we

rse used to be horrid and slap her, and when her mo

ust born, and so weak and tiny that she would never have lived if nurse hadn't watched her day and night, and so Gillian's her favourite, except the youngest

er at half-price,' said Wilfred

asure to go out, fatiguing herself to the very death with all the children rampaging about her

her ladyship, very much in the tone of one of her own children making pro

ed out, fit to drop, and Miss Val and Miss Primrose won't have a rag fit to be seen on them. But if it's your

anister at the bottom, and there was a general laugh, during which Dolly tardily climbed the stairs, so tardily that h

g left alone, while all the others went their own way. She heard them pattering and clattering, shouting and calling up and down the pass

ld-fashioned and what she called 'poked up.' The paper was ugly, the chimney-piece was a narrow, painting thing, of the same dull, stone-colour as the door and the window-frame. And then the clear air, the perfect stillness, the absence of a

in solitude. Her aunt knew not how her heart ached after the home she had left

her writing-case from the schoolroom, she saw that her books were standing just in the way she did not like, and with all the volume

'when me and Lois have been worki

w-as I don't like t

your pocket, you may put them up your own way, for all I care. Only my lady wil

'The menials are insulting me,' said Dolores to herself, and a tear came to her eye, while all

t quite absorbed in the sorrows of a certain Clare, whose golden hair was cut short by her wicked aunt, because it outshone her cousin's sandy locks. There was reason to think that a tress of this same golden hair would lead to her recognition by some grandfather of unknown magnificence, as exactly like that of his long-lost Claribel, and this might result i

er there were pears, apples, biscuits, and milk in the dining-room, and that after consuming them, lessons had to be learnt for the next day, and th

and Lois had done

all wrong, so I

put them in, or th

rep

en we get a bad mark. Perhaps mamma wouldn't give you one this first day, but it

's good nature was endangering her share of the afternoon's gouter, though perhaps it consoled

Mysie explained that not being a regular meal, no one was obliged to come punctually to it, or to come at all, but these who came tardily might fare the worse. As to the blackberries, for

lackberries,' said Dolores,

der. We never had such a blackberrying as with mamma and Hal to help us. And only think, a great carriage came by, with some very grand people in it; we think it was the Dean; and they looked down the lane and stared, so surprised to see what gr

, and followed to the schoolroom, where an irregula

neliness in a book. Then came the warning bell, and a prodigious scuffling, racing and chasing, accompanied by yells as of terror and roars as of victory, all cut short by the growls of Mrs. Halfpenny. Everything then

to me. Caroline always does,' sai

o delicious to see Prim in her bath,' said Mysie, with a l

stracted her. Thus, when she reached the nursery, Primrose was already in her little white bed-gown, and was being incited by Valetta to caper about on her cot, like

hed into silence, if nurse's soul had not been horrified by t

indignant girl back into her bedroom, untied and tied, unbuttoned and buttoned, brushed and combed in spite of the second bell ringing, the general scamper, and the sudden apparition of Mysie and Val, whom she bade run awa

uld not understand. She expected to hear the message roared out to the whole assembly round

Fergus gave rather too real a blow to Wilfred, and Gillian answered, ''Tis not smite;' Wilfred held out a hand, and was told, ''Tis not right;' Val flourished in the air as if holding a string, and was informed that 'kite' was wrong; when Hal ran away as if pursued by Fergus by way of flight; and Mysie performed antics which she was finally obliged to explain were those

,' which had been kept to begin when Dolores came, Hal taking the book