eeds but slight fuel to feed the flame of romance in a
school-girl's breast, and these dreamings might long have been
indulged but for an interruption. A servant came, bringing a basket,
with a note from the ladies engaged in decorating the church,
requesting the young ladies of the school to prepare the letters for a
motto on the walls of the church. The letters were cut from
pasteboard, to be covered with small sprigs of box. Pleased with the
novelty of our task we were soon busily engaged, under the direction
of Clara and Anna Lincoln. Even the "mischief spirits" ceased their
revels to watch our progress. Thus passed that evening, and as the
next day was Saturday, and of course a holyday, we completed our work.
The garlands were not to be hung in the church until the Wednesday
following, as Friday was Christmas day. We employed ourselves after
study hours the intervening days in finishing the presents we had
commenced for each other. On Wednesday morning Lucy Gray, one of our
day-scholars, brought a note from her mother, requesting that she
might be excused from her afternoon lessons, and inviting the teachers
and young ladies of the school to join them in dressing the church.
Here was a prospect for us of some rare enjoyment; and how we plead
for permission, and promised diligence and good behaviour for the
future, those who remember their own school-days can easily imagine.
At length permission was granted that Anna and Lizzie Lincoln, Fan
Selby, Clara Adams, and I, accompanied by one of the teachers, might
assist them for an hour or two in the afternoon. Never did hours seem
longer to us than those that passed after the permission was given
till we were on our way. The village was about half a mile from our
seminary, but the walk was a very pleasant one, and when we reached
the church our faces glowed with exercise in the keen December air. We
found a very agreeable company assembled there, laughing and chatting
gayly as they bound the branches of evergreen together in rich
wreaths. Our letters were fastened to the walls, forming a beautiful
inscription, and little remained to be done, save arranging the
garlands. Clara and Fan Selby finished the wreaths for the altar, and
were fastening them in their places, when a new arrival caused Fan to
drop her wreath, and hasten toward the new-comers, exclaiming,

"Brother Charles, I am so glad to see you!"

Then, after cordially greeting his companion, she asked eagerly o