t accepting her presents, on the score that she
"liked" to give them!--and I only tried to be, at any rate, a gracious
receiver.

[Illustration: "THE LADY WILL DRIVE!"]

There was one person, however, whom Julie found less easy to deal
with, and that was an Aunt, whose liberality even exceeded her own.
When Greek met Greek over Christmas presents, then came the tug of war
indeed! The Aunt's ingenuity in contriving to give away whatever plums
were given to her was quite amazing, and she generally managed to
baffle the most careful restrictions which were laid upon her; but
Julie conquered at last, by yielding--as often happens in this life!

"It's no use," Julie said to me, as she got out her bit of cardboard
(not for a needle-book this time!)--"I must make her happy in her own
way. She wants me to make her a sketch for somebody else, and I've
promised to do it."

The sketch was made,--the last Julie ever drew,--but it remained
amongst the receiver's own treasures. She was so much delighted with
it, she could not make up her mind to give it away, and Julie laughed
many times with pleasure as she reflected on the unexpected success
that had crowned her final effort.

I spoke of "Melchior's Dream" and must revert to it again, for though
it was written when my sister was only nineteen, I do not think she
has surpassed it in any of her later _domestic_ tales. Some of the
writing in the introduction may be rougher and less finished than she
was capable of in after-years, but the originality, power, and pathos
of the Dream itself are beyond doubt. In it, too, she showed the
talent which gives the highest value to all her work--that of teaching
deep religious lessons without disgusting her readers by any approach
to cant or goody-goodyism.

During the years 1862 to 1868, we kept up a MS. magazine, and, of
course, Julie was our principal contributor. Many of her poems on
local events were genuinely witty, and her serial tales the backbone
of the periodical. The best of these was called "The Two Abbots: a
Tale of Second Sight," and in the course of it she introduced a hymn,
which was afterwards set to music by Major Ewing and published in
Boosey's Royal Edition of "Sacred Songs," under the title "From
Fleeting Pleasures."

The words of this hymn, and of two others which she wrote for the use
of our Sunday school children at Whitsuntide in the respective years
1864 and 1866 have all been published in vol. ix. of the prese