! I scarcely know what to do with so much happiness. How delightful
it would be to stay here all my life, and never to go to bed, nor say
any more lessons as long as I live!"

"What a useless, stupid girl you would soon become," observed Lady
Harriet. "Do you think, Laura, that lessons were invented for no other
purpose but to torment little children?"

"No, grandmama; not exactly! They are of use also to keep us quiet."

"Come here, little madam, and listen to me. I shall soon be very old,
Laura, and not able to read my Bible, even with spectacles; for, as the
Scriptures told us, in that affecting description of old age, which I
read to you yesterday, 'the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the
grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the
windows be darkened:' what then do you think I can do, because the Bible
now is my best comfort, which I shall need more and more every day, to
tell me all about the eternal world where I am going, and to shew me the
way."

"Grandmama! you promised long ago to let me attend on you when you grow
old and blind! I shall be very careful, and very--very--very kind. I
almost wish you were old and blind now, to let you feel how much I love
you, and how anxious I am to be as good to you as you have always been
to me. We shall read the Bible together every morning, and as often
afterwards as you please."

"Thank you, my dear child! but you must take the trouble of learning to
read well, or we shall be sadly puzzled with the difficult words. A
friend of mine once had nobody that could read to her when she was ill,
but the maid, who bargained that she might leave out every word above
one syllable long, because they were too hard for her; and you could
hardly help laughing at the nonsense it sometimes made; but I hope you
will manage better."

"O certainly, grandmama! I can spell chrononhotonthologos, and all the
other five-cornered words in my 'Reading Made Easy,' already."

"Besides that, my dear Laura! unless you learn to look over my bills, I
may be sadly cheated by servants and shop-keepers. You must positively
study to find out how many cherries make five."

"Ah! grandmama! nobody knows better than I do, that two and two make
four. I shall soon be quite able to keep your accounts."

"Very well! but you have not yet heard half the trouble I mean to give
you. I am remarkably fond of music, and shall probably at last be
obliged to hire every old fiddler as