ne I could think of to-day."

"Oh! do tell it," we said, "do, do, dear Miss Goldy-hair."

And so she began.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XII.

THE WHITE DOVE.

"Oh! good is the sunlight that glances,
And good are the buds and the birds;
And so all the innocent fancies
Our lips can express make good words."

"There was once a little girl," said Miss Goldy-hair, "whose every-day
life was rather dull and hard. In some ways I think it was duller than
the lives of quite poor children, and in some ways I am not sure but
that it was harder too. For though not really poor--that is to say, they
had enough to eat in a plain way and clothes to wear of a plain
kind--still her parents were what is called struggling people. And they
had a great many children, little and big, of whom my little girl--Letty
was her name--was one of the middle ones. No, I should hardly say one of
the middle ones, for there were two older and five younger, so she was
more like a big one. But she was small and delicate and seemed younger
than she really was. They lived in a town--in the very middle of it;
they had to do so on account of the father's work--and it was one of the
ugliest towns you could imagine. Yet strange to say, the country round
about this town was very--what people call picturesque, if you know what
that means? There were hills, and valleys, and nice woods, and
chattering streams at but a very few hours' journey off. But many of the
people of the town hardly knew it; they were so hard-worked and so busy
about just gaining their daily bread, that they had no time for anything
else. And of all the hard-worked people, I do not know that any were
more so than Letty's parents. If they had been much poorer than they
were, and living quite in the country, I do not think Letty would have
been so much to be pitied--not in the summer time any way, for then
there are so very many pleasures that even the poorest cannot be
deprived of. As it was she had almost _no_ pleasures; her mother was
kind, but always busy, and, as is often the case, so much taken up with
her very little children that she _could not_ think so very much about
Letty. The big brother of fourteen was already at work, and the sister
of thirteen was strong and tall, and able to find pleasure in things
that were no pleasure to Letty. She, the big sister I mean, was still
at school, and clever at her lessons, so she got a good deal of praise;
and she had alr