y
day for me my first going to St. Mary's church: before that day I used
to feel like a little outcast in the wilderness, like one that did
not belong to the world of Christian people. I have never felt like a
little outcast since. But I never can hear the sweet noise of bells,
that I don't think of the angels singing, and what poor but pretty
thoughts I had of angels in my uninstructed solitude.

X

ARABELLA HARDY

(_By Charles Lamb_)

I was born in the East Indies. I lost my father and mother young. At
the age of five my relations thought it proper that I should be sent
to England for my education. I was to be entrusted to the care of a
young woman who had a character for great humanity and discretion; but
just as I had taken leave of my friends, and we were about to take our
passage, the young woman was taken suddenly ill, and could not go on
board. In this unpleasant emergency, no one knew how to act. The ship
was at the very point of sailing, and it was the last ship which was
to sail that season. At last the captain, who was known to my friends,
prevailed upon my relation who had come with us to see us embark,
to leave the young woman on shore, and to let me embark separately.
There was no possibility of getting any other female attendant for me,
in the short time allotted for our preparation; and the opportunity
of going by that ship was thought too valuable to be lost. No other
ladies happened to be going; so I was consigned to the care of the
captain and his crew,--rough and unaccustomed attendants for a young
creature, delicately brought up as I had been; but indeed they did
their best to make me not feel the difference. The unpolished sailors
were my nursery-maids and my waiting-women. Every thing was done by
the captain and the men, to accommodate me, and make me easy. I had
a little room made out of the cabin, which was to be considered as
my room, and nobody might enter into it. The first mate had a great
character for bravery, and all sailor-like accomplishments; but with
all this he had a gentleness of manners, and a pale feminine cast of
face, from ill health and a weakly constitution, which subjected him
to some little ridicule from the officers, and caused him to be named
Betsy. He did not much like the appellation, but he submitted to it
the better, as he knew that those who gave him a woman's name, well
knew that he had a man's heart, and that in the face of danger he
would go as far a