childlike creature as ever. She
loved Billy Bender, and she didn't care who knew it. She loved, too,
to seek out and befriend the poor, with which Boston, like all other
large cities, abounded. Almost daily her mother lectured her upon her
bad taste in the choice of her associates, but Jenny was incorrigible,
and the very next hour might perhaps be seen either walking with Billy
Bender, or mounting the rickety stairs of some crazy old building,
where a palsied old woman or decrepit old man watched for her coming,
and blessed her when she came.

Early in the spring Mr. Lincoln went up to Chicopee to make some
changes in his house, preparatory to his family's removal thither.
When he called at Mrs. Campbell's to see Rose, he was greatly shocked
at her altered and languid appearance. The cough, which her mother had
not observed fell ominously on his ear; for he thought of a young
sister who many years before in the bloom of girlhood had passed away
from his side. A physician was immediately called and after an
examination Rose's lungs were pronounced diseased, though not as yet
beyond cure. She was of course taken from school; and with the utmost
care, and skilful nursing, she gradually grew better.

Jenny, who had never been guilty of any great love for books, was also
told that her school days were over, and congratulated herself upon
being a "full grown young lady," which fact no one would dispute, who
saw her somewhat large dimensions.

When Ella learned that Jenny as well as Rose was emancipated from the
school-room, she immediately petitioned her mother for a similar
privilege, saying that she knew all that was necessary for her to
know. Miss Hinton, too, being weary of one pupil, and desiring a
change for herself, threw her influence in Ella's favor, so that at
last Mrs. Campbell yielded; and Ella, piling up her books, carried
them away, never again referring to them on any occasion, but spending
her time in anticipating the happiness she should enjoy the following
winter; when she was to be first introduced to Boston society.

Unlike this was the closing of Mary's school days. Patiently and
perseveringly, through the year she had studied, storing her mind with
useful knowledge; and when at last the annual examination came, not
one in the senior class stood higher, or was graduated with more honor
than herself. Mrs. Mason, who was there, listened with all a parent's
pride and fondness to her adopted child, as s