he.

"I was not happening," replied Bessy, "just to be thinking about that.
I was thinking just then, aunt, of the horrid fright Sukey was in when
the bricks came rolling down, and how she did scream."

"Give me the book," said Mrs. Goodriche, almost at the end of her
patience; "we will read no more to-day; go up and fetch that
unfortunate bombazine frock, it must be darned; you have no other here,
or indeed made, but that you have on."

Away ran Bessy, glad to be moving; and when Mrs. Goodriche had looked
at the book, she found that Bessy had turned over two leaves,--that
Tommy had once eaten a whole pound-cake in a very short time, and that
he had cried the whole of the evening for the real moon out of the sky.

It might have been thought, from the time that she was absent, that
Bessy had gone to the top of the barn to fetch her frock; the truth is,
that it was some time before she could find it; she had thrown it on
the drawers when she had taken it off, and it had slipped down behind
them, to use an expression of her own. It was all covered over with
dust, and the trimming crumpled past recovery; but she gave it a good
shaking, and down she came, not in the least troubled at the accident.
When she got into the parlour, she found Lucy and Emily seated each
with her small task of needlework; their other lessons were finished;
and Mrs. Fairchild, too, appeared with her work.

Mrs. Goodriche had desired to hear the story in Emily's new book, and
they were each to read four pages at once, then to pass the book; and
they had settled to begin with the eldest.

"I always think," said Lucy, "that when everything is done but our
work, it is so comfortable; and when there is to be reading, I work so
fast."

There was a little delay whilst Bessy was set to darn, and then Mrs.
Goodriche read her four pages, and read them very pleasantly. The book
was next given to Mrs. Fairchild, who passed it to Bessy.

"Where does it begin?" she said.

"At the top of the ninth page, Bessy," said Mrs. Fairchild.

There was another pause; and then Bessy started much like a person
running a race, reading as fast as she could, till, like the same
runner, when he comes to a stumbling-stone, she broke down over the
first hard word, which happened to be at the end of the second
sentence.

Mrs. Fairchild gently set her right, and she went on a little till she
came to another word, which she miscalled, so that Mrs. Goodriche, who
had not