ake too much at once. However, she would not be satisfied till
her request was complied with. When the parcels of work arrived,
Charlotte with exultation seized the larger one, and without a
minute's delay commenced her charitable labors. The following morning
she rose at four o'clock, to resume the employment; and not a little
self-complacency did she feel, when, after nearly two hours' hard
work, she still heard Caroline breathing in a sound sleep. But, alas!
Charlotte soon found that work is work, of whatever nature, or for
whatever purpose. She now inwardly regretted that she had asked for
more than her share; and the cowardly thought that after all she was
not obliged to do it next occurred to her. For the present, therefore,
she squeezed all the things, done and undone, into what she called
her "Dorcas bag;" and to banish unpleasant thoughts, she opened the
first book that happened to lie within reach. It proved to be "An
Introduction to Botany." Of this she had not read more than a page and
a half before she determined to collect some specimens herself; and
having found a blank copy-book she hastened into the garden, where,
gathering a few common flowers, she proceeded to dissect them, not, it
is to be feared, with much scientific nicety. Perhaps as many as three
pages of this copy-book were bespread with her specimens before she
discovered that botany was a dry study.

It would be too tedious to enumerate all the subsequent ephemeral
undertakings which filled up the remainder of the six weeks. At the
expiration of that time Mrs. Dawson returned. On the next morning
after her arrival she reminded her daughters of the account she
expected of their employments during her absence, and desired them to
set out on two tables in the schoolroom everything they had done that
could be exhibited, together with the books they had been reading.
Charlotte would gladly have been excused her part of the exhibition;
but this was not permitted; and she reluctantly followed her sister to
make the preparation.

When the two tables were spread, their mother was summoned to attend.
Caroline's, which was first examined, contained, first, her various
exercises in the different branches of study, regularly executed the
same as usual. And there were papers placed in the books she was
reading in school hours, to show how far she had proceeded in them.
Besides these, she had read in her leisure time, in French, Florian's
"Numa Pompilius,"