"Oh, mamma!" said Emily, "suppose your aunts had come home then!"

"You shall hear, my dear," continued Mrs. Fairchild. "My aunts, as I
thought, and as they expected, were not to come home till the Monday
morning; but something happened whilst they were out--I forget
what--which obliged them to return sooner than they had expected, and
they got home just at the time when I was in the cherry-orchard. They
called for me, but not finding me immediately, they sent the servants
different ways to look for me. The person who happened to come to look
for me in the cherry-orchard was Mrs. Bridget, who was the only one of
the servants who would have told of me. She soon spied me with Nanny in
the cherry-tree. She made us both come down, and dragged us by the arms
into the presence of my aunts, who were exceedingly angry; I think I
never saw them so angry. Nanny was given up to her mother to be
punished; and I was shut up in a dark room, where I was kept several
days upon bread and water. At the end of three days my aunts sent for
me, and talked to me for a long time.

"'Is it not very strange at your age, niece,' said Mrs. Penelope, 'that
you cannot be trusted for one day, after all the pains we have taken
with you, after all we have taught you?'

"'And,' said my Aunt Grace, 'think of the shame and disgrace of
climbing trees in such low company, after all the care and pains we
have taken with you, and the delicate manner in which we have reared
you!'

"In this way they talked to me, whilst I cried very much.

"'Indeed, indeed, Aunt Grace and Aunt Penelope,' I said, 'I did mean to
behave well when you went out; I made many resolutions, but I broke
them all; I wished to be good, but I could not be good.'

"When my aunts had talked to me a long time, they forgave me, and I was
allowed to go about as usual, but I was not happy; I felt that I was
naughty, and did not know how to make myself good. One afternoon, soon
after all this had happened, while my aunts and I were drinking tea in
the parlour, with the window open towards the garden, an old gentleman
came in at the front gate, whom I had never seen before. He was dressed
in plain black clothes, exceedingly clean; his gray hair curled about
his neck, and in his hand he had a strong walking-stick. I was the
first who saw him, as I was nearest the window, and I called to my
aunts to look at him.

"'Why, it is my Cousin Thomas!' cried my Aunt Penelope. 'Who would have
expe