ties!"

"Is that all, Miss! Then dry your eyes, and I can wash the frock in ten
minutes. Give it to me, and learn your lesson, so as to be ready when I
come back."

Laura sprung off her seat with joy at this proposal, and ran--or rather
flew--to fetch her miserable object of a frock, which Nelly crumpled
under her arm, and walked away with, in such haste that she was
evidently determined to return very soon; while Laura took her good
advice, and sat down to learn her task, though she could hardly look at
the book during two minutes at a time--she watched so impatiently for
her benefactress from the laundry.

At length the door flew open, and in walked Nelly, whose face looked as
red and hot as a beefsteak; but in her hand she carried a basket, on
which was laid out, in great state, the very cleanest frock that ever
was seen! It perfectly smelled of soap and water, starch and hot irons,
and seemed still almost smoking from the laundry; while Laura looked at
it with such delight and admiration, it might have been supposed she
never saw a clean frock before.

When Lady Harriet was sitting after dinner that day, sipping her wine,
and thinking about no thing very particular, she became surprised to
feel somebody gently twitching her sleeve to attract notice. Turning
instantly round to ascertain what was the matter, and who it could be,
what was her astonishment to see Laura at her elbow, looking rather shy
and frightened.

"How did you get here, child!" exclaimed Lady Harriet, in accents of
amazement, though almost laughing. "Am I never to see the last of you
to-day! Where did you get that frock! It must have dropped from the
clouds! Or did some good fairy give you a new one?"

"That good fairy was Nelly the housemaid," whispered Laura. "She first
tossed my frock into a washing-tub; and then at the great kitchen fire
she toasted it, and----"

"----And buttered it, I hope," added Major Graham. "Come here, Laura! I
can read what is written in your grandmama's face at this moment; and it
says, 'you are a tiresome little puss, that nobody can keep in any order
except uncle David;' therefore sit down beside him, and eat as many
almonds and raisins as he bids you."

"You are a nice, funny uncle David!" whispered Laura, crushing her way
in between his chair and Miss Perceval's, "nobody will need a tongue
now, if you can read so exactly what we are all thinking."

"But here is Miss Perceval, still more wonderful; for she