,' replied Beechnut, 'and go to bed and go
to sleep. If you do not get to sleep in half an hour, ring your bell,
and I will dress myself, and come and see what to do.'

'Well,' said Malleville, 'I will.' So, taking her new lamp, she went
upstairs again to her room. Hepzibah was sleeping as soundly as ever.

Malleville, in obedience to Beechnut's directions, after putting her
lamp upon the stand, went directly to her bed and lay down. She shut her
eyes to try to go to sleep, thinking of Beechnut's injunction to ring
the bell if she did not get to sleep in half an hour, and wondering how
she was to determine when the half hour would be ended. Long, however,
before she had decided this perplexing question, she was fast asleep.

The next morning Hepzibah awoke at half-past five, which was her usual
time of rising. She started up, amazed to find that it was morning, and
that she had been asleep all night upon the sofa in Malleville's room.
Her amazement was increased at finding her feet enveloped in a blanket,
and a screen placed carefully between her face and the remains of the
fire. She went hastily to Malleville's bedside, and finding that the
little patient was there safe and well, she ran off to her own room,
hoping that Phonny and Beechnut would never hear the story of her
watching, and tell it to the men; for if they did, the men, she said to
herself, would tease her almost to death about it.

When the doctor came the next morning, and they told him about
Malleville's supper, he laughed very heartily, and said that food was
better for convalescents than physic after all, and that, though
patients often made very sad mistakes in taking their case into their
own hands, yet he must admit that it proved sometimes that they could
prescribe for themselves better than the doctor.

The Life and Adventures of Lady Anne

Chapter I

Of the first years of my life I have but a slight recollection, as I
suddenly lost my mother by death, and was placed under the care of
strangers soon after I had completed my fifth year. What passed before
that time is like the faint remembrance of a long past dream, but it
seemed to myself that I had lived among ladies and gentlemen--had been
used to ride in a carriage, to be waited on by servants, who called me
Lady Anne, and to be fondled by a lady and gentleman, who called me
Annie, and their little darling, and whom I called father and mother.
These pleasing visions seemed sudden