hen she got her into the parlour again, "Bessy," she said,
"did you ever read the story of Dame Trot and her Cat?"

"I know it," answered Bessy.

"Now," added Mrs. Goodriche, "I am thinking that I am very like Dame
Trot; she never left her house but she found her cat at some prank when
she returned, and I never leave the room but I find you off and at
some trick or another when I come back; but now for our book."

Bessy, before she took her book, rubbed her hands down the sides of her
frock to clean them from any soil they might have got from the
gooseberries. It was a new black cotton, with small white spots, and
was none the better for having been made a hand-towel.

Mrs. Goodriche saw this neat trick, but she felt that if she found
fault with everything amiss in her niece, she should have nothing else
to do; so she let that pass.

Bessy, at last, opened the book and began to read.

The first story began with the account of a lady and gentleman who had
one son and a daughter, of whom they were vastly fond, and whom they
indulged in everything they could desire, which (as the writer sagely
hinted) they had cause to repent before many years had passed.

"Whilst their children were little, there was nothing in the shape of
toys which were not got for them; dolls, whips, tops, carts, and all
other sorts of playthings, were heaped up in confusion in their
play-room; but they were not content with wooden toys--they had no
delight in those but to break them in pieces. They were ever greedy
after nice things to eat, and when they got them, made themselves often
sick by eating too much of them. Once Master Tommy actually ate up----"

In this place Bessy stopped to turn over a leaf with her thumb, and
then went on, first repeating the last words of the first page.

"--Master Tommy actually ate up the real moon out of the sky."

"What! What!" cried Mrs. Goodriche; "ate the moon? Are you sure,
Bessy?"

[Illustration: "_'What! What!' cried Mrs. Goodriche._"--Page 305.]

"Yes, it is here," replied Bessy; "the real moon out of the sky--these
are the very words."

"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Goodriche; "dear child, you are reading nonsense;
don't you perceive it?"

"I don't know," replied Bessy, gaping; "I was not attending--what is
it?"

"Don't you know what you have been reading?" asked Mrs. Goodriche.

"To be sure I do," answered Bessy, "or how could I have told the words
right?"

"But the sense?" asked Mrs. Goodric