eorge, his twin brother and very devoted friend, a good boy in the
main, but so very full of mischief! he would get into a thousand
scrapes, if his more sober companion did not restrain him. We must not
overlook little Amy, the sweet child of twelve, with flowing golden hair
and languishing eyes, the gentle, unspoiled pet and playmate of all.
Her cheek is pale, for she has ever been the delicate flower of the
family, and the winter winds must not visit her too roughly: she is one
to be carefully nurtured. And the more so, as her mind is highly
imaginative and much in advance of her age; already does the light of
genius shine forth in her eye. Scarcely are these visitors well
ensconced in the chimney corner, after their fur wrappings are removed,
before the sound of wheels is again heard, and shouts of joy announce
the arrival of the Greens. That tall, slender, intellectual girl, with
pale oval face and expressive eyes, is Ellen. Her cousins are very proud
of her, for she has just returned from boarding-school with a high
character for scholarship, and has carried away the prize medal for
poetry from all competitors; the children think that she can speak every
language, and she is really a refined and accomplished girl. She has not
seen Mary or Cornelia for a couple of years, and great are the
rejoicings at their meeting; they are warm friends already. Her manly
brother Tom, although younger, looks older than she does: a fine,
handsome fellow he is. The younger Greens are almost too numerous to
particularize; Harry and Louis, Anna and Gertrude--merry children all,
noisy and frolicsome, but well-inclined and tolerably submissive to
authority; they ranged from nine years old, upward. Just as the sun was
setting, and Aunt Lucy had almost given them up, the third family of
cousins arrived, the Boltons. Charlie Bolton is the elder of the two--he
will be called Charlie to the end of his days, if he live to be a
white-haired grandfather, he is so pleasant and full of fun, so ready
with his joke and merry laugh; he is Cornelia's great friend and ally,
and the two together would keep any house wide awake. His sister Alice
is rather sentimental, for which she is heartily laughed at by her
harum-skarum brother; but she is at an age when girls are apt to take
this turn--fourteen; she will leave it all behind her when she is older.
Sentimentality may be considered the last disease of childhood; measles,
hooping-cough, and scarlatina ha