her return home in the
afternoon, her mother told her to mend her gloves, which she had torn.
Emily went to her work-basket, but could not find her thimble.

"Where can my thimble be?" she cried, after looking two or three minutes
for it. "Oh, I remember now; I left it on the window sill," and off she
ran to get it.

She was gone some time, and on her return her mother asked, "Couldn't
you find your thimble, Emily?"

"Yes, mamma, but James and George were flying their kites, so I stopped
just a minute to look at them. I will sit down now."

She opened her work-box and took out a needle, then looking about said,

"Why, where is my cotton spool? I left it on the chair a minute ago."

She moved the chairs, turned up the hearth-rug, and tumbled over her
work-box in vain; the cotton could not be found. Presently she espied
puss, under the sofa, busily employed tossing something about with her
paw.

"Oh, you naughty kitty, _you_ have got my spool," cried Emily, as she
stooped down and caught hold of the thread which puss had entangled
about the sofa legs; but kitty was in a playful mood and would not give
up the cotton-spool at once, so Emily amused herself playing with the
cat and thread for some time longer. At last, she remembered her gloves,
and sitting down mended them in a few moments.

Had Emily's mother told her that she looked at her watch when the little
girl first went for the thimble, and that she had passed exactly
three-quarters of an hour in idleness, she would not have credited it.

After a while Mrs. Manvers sent Emily up stairs to get something for
her. She stayed so long that her mother called, "Emily, what keeps you
so?"

"Nothing, mamma; I stopped just a minute to look at my new sash, it is
so pretty."

Ten minutes more were added to the wasted time. The next day Emily came
home from school without any ticket for punctuality.

"How is this?" asked the mother; "you started from home in good time?"

"Yes, mother," returned the little girl, "but I stopped just a minute to
speak to Sarah Randall, and I know our school-clock must be wrong, for
it was half-past nine by it when I went in."

Mrs. Manvers took the trouble to walk around to the school and compare
her watch with the clock; they agreed exactly, and thus she found her
daughter had wasted half an hour that morning.

"Do you know your lessons, Emily?" she asked, after her return, as the
little girl had been sitting for more than an ho