ough away, rather than come
to plague us poor children with his tiresome Reading and Spelling!"

CHAPTER IX.

MR. LEARNING'S VISIT.

It must not be supposed that during the time which it took to paper the
cottages, other things were neglected; that Plain-work and Fancy-work
were not watered, or that frequent shopping expeditions were not made to
the town of Education. My history is by no means a journal of each day's
proceedings, but only an account of some incidents that seem most worthy
of note.

I wish that I could tell my young readers that Dick frankly owned
himself sorry for having knocked down poor Lubin. Perhaps he would have
done so, for he had a kind and generous disposition, but for the evil
influence of Pride. This dark companion was almost always now at the
elbow of Dick, filling him with notions of his own importance, making
him look down upon every one who was not so sharp as himself. From
cottage to cottage Pride moved, now putting in Lubin's mind gloomy,
angry feelings towards his brother; now flattering the vanity of Matty,
till she thought herself a perfect model of beauty and almost too good
to keep company with her lame little sister Nelly. Pride did not fail
also to try to put evil into Nelly's heart, but she never would let him
converse with her; she remembered the words of her mother, and shunned
the dark tempter who leads so many astray.

"I wonder," said Pride one day to Matty as she was watering her
Fancy-work plant,--"I wonder why a lovely young creature like you should
not spend more of Time's money upon dress."

Matty giggled and blushed, and said that she feared that there was not
such a person as a good milliner to be found in all the town of
Education.

"Well," said Pride, "I think that I can help you to find one whom no one
has ever excelled in this important line of business. There is a distant
relation of my own, Miss Folly, who is wonderfully quick with her
fingers, and makes all sorts of elegant things. Lady Fashion has her so
often with her at her fine town-house, that it is clear that she regards
Miss Folly almost in the light of a friend, and would not know how to
get on without her. Folly is particularly anxious to employ her art in
hiding any changes made by age. I have known an old lady dressed up by
her with wig, rouge, and a low muslin dress, fastened up with bunches of
roses, whom you really would have taken, at least at a distance, for
some lovely young cr