of the responsibility; a lively girl of sixteen, with strong
individuality and marked precocity, is likely to be a formidable charge;
but Mrs. Barton lamented her absence in no measured terms.

'It seems so dull without Miss Jocelyn,' she said, the first evening.
'She was such a lively young lady, and made us all cheerful. Why, she
would run in and out the kitchen a dozen times a day, to feed the
chickens, or pet the cat, or watch me knead the bread. She and Nathaniel
got on famously together, and often I have found her helping him with the
books, and laughing so merrily when he made a mistake. I used to think
Nathaniel did it on purpose sometimes, just for the fun of it.'

Yes, we all missed Jill, and I for one loved the girl dearly. It made me
quite happy one day when she wrote a long letter, telling me that she was
delighted with her new governess.

'Miss Gillespie is as nice as possible,' she wrote. 'I already feel quite
fond of her; my lessons are as interesting now as they used to be dull
with Fraeulein. She knows a great deal, and is not ashamed to confess when
she is ignorant of anything; she says right out that she cannot answer my
questions, and proposes that we should study it together. I quite enjoy
our walks and talks, for she takes so much interest in all I tell her.
She is a little dull and sad sometimes, as though she were thinking of
past troubles; but I like to feel that I can cheer her up and do her
good. Mother and Sara are delighted with her; she plays so beautifully,
and they say that she is such a gentlewoman. When we come downstairs in
the evening she will not allow me to creep into a corner; she makes me
join in the conversation, and coaxes me to play my pieces; and she tries
to prevent mother making horrid little remarks on my awkwardness.

'"It will all come right, Mrs. Garston," I heard her say one day. "It is
far wiser not to notice it: young girls are so sensitive, and Jocelyn is
keenly alive to her shortcomings." And mother actually nodded assent to
this, and the next moment she called me up, and said how much I had
improved in my playing, and that Colonel Ferguson had told her that I
had been exceedingly well taught.

'By the bye, I am quite sure that Colonel Ferguson intends to be my
brother-in-law: he is always here in the evening, and yesterday he sent
Sara such a magnificent bouquet.'

Jill's chatty letters were always amusing. She had prepared me
beforehand, so I was not surpris