152

_XXIV. A visit to Mr. Chemistry_, 159

_XXV. A Lesson_, 167

_XXVI. Hearing the Truth_, 177

_XXVII. A Brave Effort_, 185

_XXVIII. Expectation_, 190

_XXIX. Empty and Furnished_, 196

_XXX. Fruits of Needlework_, 204

_XXXI. The Crown of Success_, 212

_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS._

_The sparkling crown was placed on her brow_, _Frontispiece_

_Nelly could hardly see the stepping-stones through
the thick leaves of the plant which she bore_, 27

_Miss folly went jabbering on: "Just try that bonnet
on your head,"_ 73

_Dick, Lubin, Matty, and Nelly paying their first visit
to Grammar's Bazaar_, 103

THE CROWN OF SUCCESS.

CHAPTER I.

THE DAME'S DEPARTURE.

A merry life had Dame Desley and her four children led in their rural
home. The sound of their cheerful voices, the patter of their little
feet, the laugh, the shout, and the song, had been heard from morning
till night. I will not stop to tell of all the daisy-chains and
cowslip-balls made by the children under the big elm-tree that grew on
their mother's lawn; or how they gathered ripe blackberries in autumn;
or in the glowing days of summer played about the hay-cocks, and buried
one another in the hay. Their lives were thoughtless and gay, like those
of the sparrows in the garden, or the merry little squirrels in the
wood.

But a time came at last when these careless days must end. Dame Desley
had to take a long journey--she would be absent for many a month--and on
the evening before her departure she called her four children around
her.

"My dear children," she said, "I must leave you; I must give you up for
a while to the care of another. But I have chosen a guardian for you who
is worthy of all your respect. Mr. Learning is coming to see you
to-morrow, just an hour before I start; and I hope that he will find you
all good and obedient children during my absence. Whatever he may bid
you do, do for the love of me, and when you attend to Mr. Learning,
think that you are pleasing your mother."

When the four children were alone together, just before going to rest,
they began eagerly to talk over what Dame Desley had told them.

"I wonder whether