ed a hundred different scenes of interest. There was the wooden
horse of old Troy; here appeared the gallant sons of Sparta defending
the pass of Thermopylae; great men of Greece and of Rome, British
monarchs and statesmen in varied costumes and different attitudes,
adorned the History carpet. Adorned, did I say? rather once had adorned,
for all was now a jumble of confusion! There was a great blot of mud
just over the face of Julius Caesar, and not a single Roman emperor
stood out clear and distinct. In silent indignation Mr. Learning turned
away, leaving Lubin to do the best that he could with his poor soiled
History carpet.

Nelly Desley, weary, but cheerful, had just carried her burden home. She
was unrolling it now in her simple but beautifully neat little parlour,
and surveying with great delight the charming pattern upon it.

"Of all the purchases that I have made, this pleases me most!" she
cried. "What a wonderful variety of pictures, so amusing and
interesting! Ah, there is good Queen Philippa on her knees, begging for
the citizens of Calais; and there brave Joan of Arc leading on her
soldiers to battle! And there, oh, there are the holy martyrs tied to
the stake for the sake of the truth, looking so calmly and meekly
upwards, as though they had no fear of dying! I can never pass a dull
evening now with this wonderful carpet before me; it seems as though it
would take a lifetime to know all its various scenes."

"Yes," said Mr. Learning, who had entered her parlour unobserved, "that
beautiful carpet will serve as a constant feast for the mind. Fiction
may boast that his dyes are the brightest; this I utterly deny; no
colours are so vivid or so lasting as those that have been fixed by
Truth, and these should alone be employed in the carpets which History
produces."

Mr. Learning then graciously bestowed upon Nelly the gift of the hammer
and nails, and quitted the cottages of Head well satisfied with at least
one of his charges.

CHAPTER XIX.

HAMMERING IN DATES.

Knock--knock--knock! "Oh, this wearisome hammering!" sighed poor Nelly,
as stooping over her carpet till the blood swelled the veins of her
forehead, she tried to fasten in, one by one, the date-nails which Mr.
Learning had given. "I do not see why it is needful to knock in all
these tiresome nails! Lubin has thrown his whole stock into a rubbish
corner, I know, and says that he never means to prick his fingers again
by thrusting them