ECE.]

THE AUNT AND THE NIECE.

[Illustration: A]UNT RUTH was only nine years old, while her niece Mary
was nineteen. But Ruth, being an aunt, felt she must keep up the dignity
of one; and so she used to treat Mary as if Mary were a little girl.

They had not seen each other for nearly a year; and, when they met,
Mary, who was fond of mischief, acted as if she were really younger than
Ruth, though she well knew she was nine years older.

"Aunt Ruth," said Mary, "have you any objection to my going out in the
grove to swing?"

"None at all, my dear," said Ruth; "but I will go with you, lest you
should get hurt."

"Thank you, aunty," replied Mary. "Now let us see who can run the
faster."

Mary started off at a run towards the swing; but Ruth called her back,
and said, "Stop, my dear, you will wet those nice new shoes in the damp
grass; and then your mother will blame me for not taking better care of
you. We will go by the gravel road to the grove."

"Yes, ma'am," answered Mary, turning her head to hide her smiles; and
then, seeing a flower, Mary cried, "Oh! what a beautiful flower! Tell me
what it is, aunty. I think I never saw one like it before. What a
heavenly blue! And how nicely the edges are fringed!"

"Yes, my dear: that is a fringed gentian," said Ruth. "It is one of the
latest of our wild autumn flowers; and I am not surprised that you
admire it."

"It is indeed lovely," exclaimed Mary. "You must teach me all about
these wild flowers, aunty; for we city girls have few opportunities of
seeing them."

"Yes, my dear niece, I will teach you," returned Ruth. "I want you to
learn a lesson of some kind every day you are with us."

Mary burst out into a laugh that she could not control.

"Why, what are you laughing at, my dear?" asked Aunt Ruth.

But Mary, to escape replying to the question, ran and took hold of the
swing. "Now for it, aunty!" said she.

Mary sat down in the swing, and Ruth pushed her from behind; and, after
she had swung enough, Ruth took her to the barn. But here, I regret to
say, the sight of a pile of hay on the barn-floor was too much for Niece
Mary. She seemed to lose all her reverence at once.

Seizing Aunt Ruth, she threw her on the hay, and covered her up with it,
crying out, "You precious little aunty, I must have a frolic, or I shall
die. So forget that you are an aunt, and try to remember that you are
nothing, after all, but a darling little girl."

Ruth, though a