vered
amongst our books one on Botany, and another on Natural History of all
kinds, and also the Travels of a Gentleman in the West Indies, that gave
a very accurate account of all the productions natural to the climate we
were in, she was in an especial good humour.

Sybil begged earnestly that the house might be in the gothic style,
which upset Schillie a little, but she pooh, poohed it off, until Serena
came out with a vehement hope that it might be a Swiss cottage. "Swiss
fiddlestick," retorted Schillie, "my dear girls, if you think I shall
break my back and spoil my hands ornamenting a house for you, you will
find yourselves wonderfully deceived." She had very pretty small white
hands. Gatty thought it would be delightful to cut down a tree, and
muttered something about the impossibility of learning lessons and
building a house at the same time. In this she was unanimously supported
by several youthful voices, and Madame was already appealing to me by
looks of a most pathetic kind (she had the most extraordinary horror of
a holiday that I ever saw), and Schillie, on seeing her look, exclaimed,
"Well, Madame, you are certainly not of the same species as I am. I
should be only too willing to give them holidays every day if I were
their governess." "Yes, Madame," said Sybil, "and she acts up to it; for
when you were ill, I heard her say to the little girls that she would
give them a whole holiday that day because they had had only half a one
the day before." Madame looked horror-stricken, and mournfully shook her
head at Schillie.

_Mother._--"Come, come, now, about this house. Where shall we put it
up!"

Many places were suggested, and at last, partly because there were so
many trees there, partly because we fancied it more sheltered, and
partly because it was such a lovely spot, we fixed upon the little
valley or glade which was sheltered by the cliffs on one side and by a
thick wood on the other. In the centre was the great tree which had
bewildered us so by its strange movements while under the influence of
the great Anaconda. Inland, beyond the tree, was the pretty peaceful
lake, and a sloping terrace took us down to it.

Great impatience was now manifested on all sides to begin; Madame alone
was in low spirits. It had been decreed by the higher powers that, until
we could see how we got on in this new and unusual work for feminine
fingers, it was as well to employ the whole force of the island;
besides, aft