xample shewed me that an
infirmity may be a blessing. Her ear was shut to the noises of the
world, the strife of tongues, and as her mother said, "she did not know
what a bad word was," only it was tuned to holy things. She always
knew what was going on in church, and by her eager attention learnt to
do everything in school; and when her deafness was increased by her
fever, and she could not hear her mother's and sisters' voices, she
could follow the prayers Papa read, the delirium fled away from them.
Oh! it is a blessing and a privilege to have been near such a girl; but
then--though the last thing she said was to desire her sisters to be
good girls and keep to their church and school--she would have been the
same, have had the same mind, without our teaching--our mere
school-keeping, I mean. Aunt Anne, you say you have kept school in
your village for thirty years; you were just in my situation, the
clergyman's daughter; so do tell me what effect your teaching has had
as regards the children of your first set of girls. Are they better
managed at home than their mothers?'

'More civilized and better kept at school, otherwise much the same,'
said Lady Merton. 'Yes, my experience is much the same as yours;
comparatively few of those I have watched from their childhood have
done thoroughly well, and their good conduct has been chiefly owing to
their parents. Some have improved and returned to do right, perhaps
partly in consequence of their early teaching.'

'Sad work, sad work, after all!' said Elizabeth, as she left the room
to finish hearing the little ones, and release Mrs. Woodbourne.

'And yet,' said Helen, as the door closed, 'no one is so happy at
school as Lizzie, or delights more in the children, or in devising
pleasure for them.'

'I never shall understand Lizzie,' said Anne, with a kind of sigh; 'who
would have suspected her of such desponding feelings? and I cannot
believe it is so bad an affair. How can it be, taking those dear
little things fresh from their baptism, training them with holy things
almost always before them, their minds not dissipated by all kinds of
other learning, like ours.'

'I do not know that that is quite the best thing, though in a degree it
is unavoidable,' said her mother.

'So I was thinking,' said Helen; 'I think it must make religious
knowledge like a mere lesson; I know that is what Lizzie dreads, and
they begin the Bible before they can read it well.'

'But can