icest and lightest, and we
want to talk over our affairs. You, my son, can help John turn the hay
on the lawn, and Caroline can amuse baby, or help Jane with the
preserves. Little girls should be domestic.'

'Oh, thunder!' growled papa.

'Aunt Betsey taught you that speech, you saucy boy,' cried mamma, as the
children drove off in high glee, leaving their parents to the
distasteful tasks set them.

Mrs. Fairbairn wanted to read, but baby was fretful, and there was no
Kitty to turn him over to, so she spent her afternoon amusing the small
tyrant, while papa made hay in the sun and didn't like it.

Just at tea-time the children came home, full of the charms of their
drive, but did not take the trouble to tell much about it to the
stay-at-home people. Bread and milk was all they allowed their victims,
while they revelled in marmalade and cake, fruit and tea.

'I expect company this evening, but I don't wish you to sit up,
Caroline; you are too young, and late hours are bad for your eyes. Go to
bed, and don't forget to brush your hair and teeth well, five minutes
for each; cold cream your hands, fold your ribbons, hang up your
clothes, put out your boots to be cleaned, and put in the mosquito bars;
I will come and take away the light when I am dressed.'

Kitty delivered this dread command with effect, for she had heard and
cried over it too often not to have it quite by heart.

'But I can't go to bed at half-past seven o'clock of a summer night! I'm
not sleepy, and this is just the pleasantest time of the whole day,'
said mamma, thinking her bargain a hard one.

'Go up directly, my daughter, and don't discuss the matter; I know what
is best for you,' and Kitty sent social, wide-awake mamma to bed, there
to lie thinking soberly till Mrs. Kit came for the lamp.

'Have you had a happy day, love?' she asked, bending over the pillow, as
her mother used to do.

'No, ma'am.'

'Then it was your own fault, my child. Obey your parents in all things,
and you will be both good and happy.'

'That depends'--began mamma, but stopped short, remembering that
to-morrow she would be on the other side, and anything she might say now
would be quoted against her.

But Kitty understood, and her heart melted as she hugged her mother and
said in her own caressing way--

'Poor little mamma! did she have a hard time? and didn't she like being
a good girl and minding her parents?'

Mamma laughed also, and held Kitty close, but all s