, and admired? has she not
consulted Folly about her dress--spent her precious minutes and hours on
a looking-glass--or a fanciful garment, or a worthless work of Fiction,
when duties had to be performed, when valuable things were to be bought
in the good town of Education?

Ah, dear little laughing reader, have I, like grave Mr. Learning, caught
some one in the very fact of harbouring Miss Folly? Turn her out--at
once turn her out! She is a silly companion, an unsafe guide; she will
never make you loved, respected, or happy. Though not quite so dark and
dangerous as Pride, she is much more closely related to him than people
would at first imagine; there is much of Pride in Folly--and oh, for
poor, weak, ignorant beings like ourselves, is not Folly seen in all
Pride!

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE CARPET OF HISTORY.

Mr. Learning now stood at the top of hill Puzzle, watching Dick, Lubin,
and Nelly, returning laden with carpets from History's shop. Though the
carpets, like the rooms, were but small, they were rather heavy burdens
for children in wet and slippery weather.

Learning smiled his own quiet smile, to see the different and
characteristic movements of his young charges, the Desleys. Dick, the
quick and energetic Dick, was half-way up hill Puzzle when his brother
and sister were only beginning to ascend. His bright young face was
flushed, but rather with pleasure than fatigue; he sped on with a light
elastic tread, neither panting nor pausing, but bearing the carpet of
History as though he felt not its weight. He moved all the more swiftly
for seeing that his guardian's eye was upon him, and on reaching the
crown of the hill, saluted Mr. Learning with a very self-satisfied air.

"You make good progress," observed the sage, politely returning his
salute.

"Oh, I get over everything with a hop, skip, and jump," replied the
laughing boy, forgetting his flounder in Bother, "and you'll soon have
the pleasure of presenting me with the silver crown of Success. It's
nearly time, I should think, for you to introduce me to all your learned
friends the Ologies! But there's one gentleman in Education whom I fancy
more than all--the glorious old fellow who keeps a shop filled with jars
of different colours, retorts, electric-machines, and bottles of powders
and gases; I've heard that he sells such fireworks as would set all the
world in a blaze!"

"You mean, of course, Mr. Chemistry," replied the sage; "he is my much