hours after breakfast are not happier days generally than
those which he spends exactly in the manner he himself chooses.'

'Oh, I think he is generally laughing and merry,' said Ellen, 'when he
sets off after breakfast into the hayfield, or the cricket meadow; much
more so than when he walks with his grave face and his book under his
arm into father's study.'

'And I very well remember, Ellen,' replied Mrs. Danvers, 'that this
merry mood of his, which you think so delightful, has more than once
ended in a flood of tears before night, while, on the contrary, I think
the grave study countenance is generally turned into lasting smiles by
dinner-time. But if you continue chatting the work will never be done.
Sit quietly, and be industrious for half an hour, and then we will go
into the garden together, and see if the gardener has any strawberries
for us; I dare say George's companions will like some strawberries and
milk after their game.'

While Ellen is attending to her mother's directions, and industriously
performing the task required of her; we will take a view of George and
his young companions, and see whether or not he is likely to be tired
of his day of idleness.

George had got up very early in the morning to prepare the wickets for
the game of cricket, which had been proposed to him by several lads
living in the neighbourhood. If the young reader is a little girl and
not a cricket player herself, she must ask her brothers or cousins to
describe to her what are wickets, and if neither of these are near her
she must ask her father, who will no doubt be very happy to give her the
desired information. George had been awake very early indeed, but as he
had had a strict injunction never to be out of doors before the gardener
and groom were at their work, he had lain in bed till he heard the
stable-door opened, and then, hastily jumping up and dressing himself,
had said his prayers, and was downstairs before the clock struck five.
He then went to what he called his toolhouse, which was a little shed by
the side of the greenhouse, where the gardeners kept their
watering-pots, and where he had a box containing a hammer, a saw, and a
plane adapted to the use of young hands, and a small box containing
nails. He had also here a repository of pieces of wood thrown aside by
the carpenter, and old sides and covers of boxes, which were no longer
of any service for the uses for which they were designed, and here it
was that