iked to
watch the good Pen at his work when the father of the family spent an
hour in the evening in teaching Susan and her brothers to write; or when
the careful mother took him in hand to help her in balancing her
accounts, and ascertaining that she owed no one a penny, before she
ventured upon any new purchase. Then my worthy friend was in his glory;
and it was delightful to see how he enjoyed his work. He had but one
fault, which was a slight tendency to splutter; and as he was obliged to
keep that under restraint while engaged in writing, he made himself
amends by a little praise of himself, when relating his exploits to a
sympathising friend like myself. On his return with the inkstand to the
corner of my shelf, he could not resist sometimes boasting when he had
not made a single blot; or confessing to me, in perfect confidence, how
much the thinness of Susan's upstrokes, or the thickness of her
downstrokes, was owing to the clearness of his slit or the fineness of
his nib.

The family of which we made part lived frugally and worked hard: but
they were healthy and happy. The father with his boys went out early in
the morning to the daily labor by which they maintained the family. The
mother remained at home, to take care of the baby and do the work of the
house. She was the neatest and most careful person I ever saw, and she
brought up her daughter Susan to be as notable as herself.

Susan was an industrious little girl, and in her childish way worked
almost as hard as her mother. She helped to sweep the house, and nurse
the baby, and mend the clothes, and was as busy as a bee. But she was
always tidy; and though her clothes were often old and shabby, I never
saw them dirty or ragged. Indeed, I must own that, in point of
_neatness_, Susan was even superior to my old friend Rose. Rose would
break her strings, or lose her buttons, or leave holes in her gloves,
till reproved by her Mama for untidiness: but Susan never forgot that 'a
stitch in time saves nine,' and the stitch was never wanting.

She used to go to school for some hours every day: and I should have
liked to go with her, and help her in her studies, especially when I
found that she was learning the multiplication-table, and I remembered
how useful I had been to Rose in that very lesson; but dolls were not
allowed at school, and I was obliged to wait patiently for Susan's
company till she had finished all her business, both at school and at
home.

Sh