ess often the case with
children than with such grown people as--like your guardian, Phoebe--have
kept something of the majesty and calmness of innocence.'

Phoebe was all in a glow with the pleasure of hearing him so called, but
bashful under that very delight, she said, 'Perhaps part of Solomon's
wisdom was in loving these things, since he knew the plants from the
cedar to the hyssop.'

'And spoke of Nature so beautifully in his Song, but I am afraid as he
grew old he must have lost his healthful pleasure in them when he was
lifted up.'

'Or did he only make them learning and ornament, instead of a joy and
devotion?' said Phoebe, thinking of the difference between Bertha's love
and Miss Charlecote's.

'Nor does he say that he found vanity in them, though he did in his own
gardens and pools of water. No, the longer I live, the more sure I am
that these things are meant for our solace and minor help through the
trials of life. I assure you, Phoebe, that the crimson leaf of a
Herb-Robert in the hedge has broken a strain of fretful repining, and it
is one great blessing in these pleasures that one never can exhaust
them.'

Phoebe saw that Miss Charlecote was right in her own case, when on coming
in, the grasshopper's name and history were sought, and there followed an
exhibition of the 'puss' for whom the willow had been gathered, namely a
grass-green caterpillar, with a kitten's face, a curious upright head and
shoulders, and two purple tails, whence on irritation two pink filaments
protruded,--lashes for the ichneumons, as Honora explained. The lonely
woman's interest in her quaint pet showed how thickly are strewn round us
many a calm and innocent mode of solace and cheerfulness if we knew but
how to avail ourselves of it.

Honora had allowed the conversation to be thus desultory and indifferent,
thinking that it gave greater rest to Phoebe, and it was not till the
evening was advancing, that she began to discharge herself of an urgent
commission from Robert, by saying, 'Phoebe, I want you to do something
for me. There is that little dame's school in your hamlet. It is too
far off for me to look after, I wish you would.'

'Robin has been writing to me about parish work,' said Phoebe, sadly.
'Perhaps I ought, but I don't know how, and I can't bear that any change
in our ways should be observed;' and the tears came more speedily than
Honor had expected.

'Dear child,' she said, 'there is no need for that f