me, as plainly as looks can say, that I
am as vain as yonder peacock.

_Rachel._--Why, Laura, how you blush! Do you think you deserve such a
reproof?

_Laura._--I do, I do. Here, this Sunday morning, I have been thinking
more of my new summer silk than of any thing else. Like that screeching
peacock, I have been vain of my fine feathers. Yes, let us hurry on to
church. One sermon I have had already. It was all given in a look.

_Rachel._--You are quick to take a hint, I see.

_Laura._--I hope I may be as quick to profit by it. "Pride shall have a
fall," says the proverb; and my pride has fallen.

_Rachel._--I shall not try to help it up, my dear.

ANNA LIVINGSTON.

GRANDMOTHER'S STORY.

One summer afternoon, when grandmother was sitting in her old arm-chair,
just outside of the door, little Jane looked fondly up in her face, and
said,--

"Tell us a story, grandma."

"A story, child!" said grandma. "Why, I never made up a story in my
life."

"But you can tell a true story," said Ruth, who was seated on the
doorstep,--"about something that happened when you were a little girl."

While they were talking, George and Charles and Snap, the dog, had come
running up to join the group. Grandma stopped in her knitting, thought a
moment, and said,--

"Well, children, sit down, all of you, and I will tell you a true
story."

So the children all took seats; and grandma began:--

When I was a little girl, about the age of Ruth, my father was
preceptor of the Hingham Academy. You have all been in Hingham. It
is only fifteen miles from Boston. We go there now, by rail or by
steamboat, in less than an hour; but, in those days, we used to go
by a sailing-packet; and it was sometimes a whole day's journey.

Well, in our family there was a French boy, named Bernard Trainier.
His mother was not living. His father lived in Toulon, France. At
that time, France, under the great Napoleon, was continually at war,
and all her young men were forced into the army. I suppose it was to
save Bernard from this fate, that he was sent to America. Mr.
Trainier was acquainted with a French gentleman, Mr. Duprez, who
then lived in Boston; and, through him, Bernard was placed in my
father's care to be educated.

Well, he was a bright, pleasant boy. He soon learned to speak
English; and I and my sisters and brothers became very fond of him.
He would have been very