OF MISS HENNY FRET.

'I had one brother,' said Miss Henny, 'as well as Miss Jenny Peace; but
my manner of living with him was quite the reverse to that in which
she lived with her brother. All my praise or blame was to arise from my
being better or worse than my brother. If I was guilty of any fault,
it was immediately said, "Oh! fie, miss! Master George (that was my
brother's name) would not be guilty of such a thing for the world." If
he was carried abroad, and I stayed at home, then I was bemoaned over,
that poor Miss Henny was left at home, and her brother carried abroad.
And then I was told, that I should go abroad one of these days, and my
brother be left at home so that whenever I went abroad, my greatest joy
was, that he was left at home; and I was pleased to see him come out
to the coach-door with a melancholy air that he could not go too. If
my brother happened to have any fruit given him, and was in a peevish
humour, and would not give me as much as I desired, the servant that
attended me was sure to bid me take care, when I had anything he waited,
not to give him any. So that I thought, if I did not endeavour to be
revenged of him, I should show a want of spirit, which was of all things
what I dreaded most. I had a better memory than my brother, and whenever
I learnt anything, my comfort was to laugh at him because he could not
learn so fast; by which means I got a good deal of learning, but never
minded what I learnt, nor took any pains to keep it; so that what I was
eager to learn one day, to show George how much I knew more than he, I
forgot the next. And so I went on learning, and forgetting as fast as I
learnt; and all the pains I took served only to show that I COULD learn.

'I was so great a favourite, that I was never denied any thing I
asked for; but I was very unhappy for the same reason that Miss Dolly
Friendly's sister was so; and I have often sat down and cried, because I
did not know what I would have, till at last I own I grew so peevish and
humoursome, that I was always on the fret, and harboured in my mind a
kind of malice that made me fancy whatever my brother got, I lost; and
in this unhappy condition I lived, till I came to school, and here I
found that other misses wanted to have their humours as well as myself.
This I could not bear, because I had been used to have my own will, and
never to trouble myself about what others felt. For whenever I beat or
abused my brother, his pain did not