work from her pocket, began to sew as
industriously as if she had been at home.

13. "O Betty!" exclaimed Anna, "how can you sit and sew, when there are
so many pleasant sights and sounds around you?"

14. "I can hear the pleasant sounds, my child, without looking round to
see where they come from," replied Betty; "and as for the pretty sights,
though I can enjoy them as much as any one, I cannot neglect my work for
them.

15. "I promised your mother to have these shirts finished when she came
home, and I mean to do so."--"Dear me!" said the little girl, "I wish I
had brought my book, and I might have studied my lesson here."

16. "No, no, Anna," said the old woman; "little girls can't study in the
woods, with the birds singing and the grasshoppers chirping around them.
Better attend to your books in-doors."

17. Betty continued her sewing; and towards sunset, when they arose to
return, she had stitched a collar and a pair of wristbands, while Anna
had filled her basket with flowers.

18. As they approached the village, Betty called at a poor cottage, to
inquire after a sick child, and Anna was shocked at the poverty and
wretchedness of the inmates. The little children were only half clothed,
their faces were covered with dirt, and their rough locks seemed to bid
defiance to the comb.

19. Pitying the condition of the poor little girls, Anna determined to
provide them with some better clothing; and she returned home full of
benevolent projects.

20. The next morning, as soon as she rose, she began to look over her
wardrobe; and selecting three frocks which she had outgrown, she carried
them to Betty, to alter for Mrs. Wilson's children.

21. "I shall do no such thing," said Betty; "Mrs. Wilson's children are
not suffering for clothes; the weather is warm, and they are as well
clad as they will be the day after they are dressed up in your finery.

22. "Mrs. Wilson is an untidy, slovenly woman; and though your mother
charged me to look after her sick baby, she did not tell me to furnish
new clothes for the other dirty little brats!"

23. "Well, Betty, if you don't choose to do it, I'll try it
myself."--"Pretty work you'll make of it, to be sure! you will just cut
the frocks to pieces, and then they will fit nobody."

24. "Well, I am determined to fix them for those poor little ragged
children," said Anna; "and if you will not help me, I will get Kitty the
chambermaid to do it."

LESSON XXIX.

_The