eak into, when cousin Margaret asked
her not to spoil it?

Margaret was indeed on her knees, prying into the spider's nest. When
duly laughed at, she owned to having seen cobwebs before, but maintained
that cobwebs in a closet were a very different affair from a spider's
nest in a field.

"I rather think, however," said she, "the word `nest' itself has
something to do with my liking, for what I have been looking at. Some
of your commonest country words have a charm to the ear and imagination
of townspeople that you could not understand."

"But," said Mr Hope, "I thought nests were very common in Birmingham.
Have you not nests of boxes, and nests of work-tables?"

"Yes, and so we have stacks of chimneys; but yet we do not think of
hay-making when we see the smoke of the town.--I rather think country
words are only captivating as relating to the country; but then you
cannot think how bewitching they are to people who live in streets."

"The children might have found you a prettier sort of nest to indulge
your fancy with, I should think. There must be plenty of creatures
besides spiders in this wide meadow."

Mr Hope called out to the little girls, that whoever should find any
sort of a nest in the meadow, for Miss Margaret Ibbotson, should have a
ride on his horse. Away flew the children; and Hester and Sophia came
from the water-side to know what all the bustle was about. Fanny
returned to inquire whether the nests must be _in_ the meadow; whether
just outside would not do. She knew there was an ants' nest in the
bank, just on the other side of the hedge. The decision was that the
ants' nest would do only in case of her not being able to find any other
within bounds. Sophia looked on languidly, probably thinking all this
very silly. It put her in mind of an old schoolfellow of hers who had
been called very clever before she came to school at nine years old.
Till she saw her, Sophia had believed that town children were always
clever: but no later than the very first day, this little girl had got
into disgrace with the governess. Her task was to learn by heart
Goldsmith's Country Clergyman, in the `Deserted Village.' She said it
quite perfectly, but, when questioned about the meaning, stopped short
at the first line,--"Near yonder copse where once a garden smiled." She
persisted that she did not know what a copse was: the governess said she
was obstinate, and shut her up in the play hours between morning