all your lessons well, and are good this week, I will lend
you a very amusing and instructive tale."

"But what is the title?" asked Miss Bruce.

"It is one word, meaning a mark of folly in young ladies. But I must
finish the grammatical exercise."

'Miss Rothman, a section sufficiently curved.'

"You should not have made this remark, Miss Grey. When you ridicule
deformity you shew a want of feeling; and, what is of more consequence,
you prove that you treat with contempt the works of your Creator. Miss
Rothman's talents, and amiable temper, we cannot too highly prize."

'Miss Russel, an index to point out disagreeables; make her an article,
and she will prove a bad one of the definite order.'

'The little Rhymer, a brace; and Miss Wise, a verb neuter.

'Miss Damer, auxiliary verb, or substantive proper; first person
singular, face--' Miss Darner stopped a moment, and then went on with,
'Miss Jane Adair,--temper, syntax; consisting of concord and government;
speech, a preposition; voice, liquids; face, mind, and figure, in the
superlative degree; as the verb to be loved, second person singular,
indicative mood, present tense, to myself and others. The remainder,
excepting Miss Arden, may be classed with mutes, crotchets, irregular
verbs, quotations, and parallels.'

"I wish," cried Isabella, "I could write exercises, or a theme, or
something, I don't care what."

"And what is to prevent you, my dear?"

"Oh, nothing at all, Miss Damer, if I could but tell what to write."

"Tell how the world was made," said Miss Bruce, "that would be a very
good subject."

"I cannot do that, I am sure! I do not know what stars are made of,
they twinkle so; nor what makes flowers look so pretty, and smell so
sweet; nor where the wind comes from, or what it is: it touches me, but
I cannot touch it."

"You have never read 'Evenings at Home,'" said Miss Bruce, "or you would
know that 'wind is but a quantity of air put into violent motion.'"

"But what is the air? Tell me this."

"A clear thin fluid, certainly, and the earth is a vast ball; it would
soon break its bounds, were it not attracted by the sun."

"But who preserves it in its regular motion?" asked Miss Damer.

"Oh, Miss Damer," exclaimed Miss Bruce, "all the stars, and the moon,
and the trees, and all that we behold had but one to make them, and one
to support them--the Great Almighty Maker, who gave me my voice to
speak, my mind to think, and my eyes to look at