not, my dear," said the governess; "do not be uncharitable.
Well, Hetty, you may put aside your book for to-day. I hope to improve
you before your visit is over. Do you know anything of geography? Come,
I will give you an easy question. Where is England situated on the map?"

"In the middle of the Red Sea," said Hetty briskly.

"My dear! why do you suppose so?"

"I see it up there on the map," said Hetty; "the sea is marked in red
all round it."

Nell tittered again. Phyllis put her fingers in her ears, determined to
hear no more of Hetty's absurdities.

"You make a great mistake," said Miss Davis, and spreading a map before
Hetty, the governess gave her a lesson on the position of the Red Sea
and the relative position of England.

"Have you learned anything at all of numbers?"

"I can count on my fingers," said Hetty; "I add up the fives and I can
reckon up to a hundred that way."

"You must learn a better way of counting than that. Have you never
learned the multiplication table?"

"My mamma's tables are all ebony or marble," said Hetty, putting on a
bewildered air, "but I will count them up if you like. There are six in
the drawing-room," she continued, holding up all the fingers of her left
hand, and the thumb of the right.

"You ridiculous child! you misunderstand me quite. The multiplication
table is an arrangement of numbers. I will give it to you to study. In
the meantime, come, how many do three threes make when they are added
together?"

"I don't know anything about threes," said Hetty; "I only know about
fives."

"I think I must give you up for to-day," said Miss Davis in despair.
"Phyllis is waiting with her French exercise. Can you read French at
all, Hetty?"

"I can talk French," said Hetty; "but I don't want to read it; 'tis
quite bad enough to have to read English, I think. Talking is so much
pleasanter than reading."

"You can talk it, can you? Let me hear," and Miss Davis addressed a
question to her in French.

In answer to it Hetty poured forth a perfect flood of French, spoken
with a pretty accent and grammatically correct. In truth she spoke like
a little Frenchwoman, and completely surprised her listeners. She had
been asked some question about walking in the Champs Elysees and now
gave a vivid description of the scene there on a fine morning, the
people who frequented it, their dress, their manners, their
conversation.

Miss Davis put down the multiplication table which she h