the best of
Christian influences? What is your object in being so particular that
the younger boys are regular in their attendance at our surpliced
choir?"

"It gives them a good idea of music--but that is not the point just now.
Can we afford to send Mary Mason to a convent, or can we not?"

"Choose between her and the buggy mare 'suitable for a lady to drive,'"
said I; but in reality it was my mother who settled the question.

When we came home that evening she was sitting by the fireside,

"Nursin' her wrath to keep it warm."

"Ye maun either pit yon hizzy oot the hoose, or I'll hitta gang."

"What's the matter now, mother?"

"I tell't her to brush the boys' bits tae be ready for the schule in the
mornin'. They were thrang wi' their lessons an' she wasna daein' a han's
turn."

"And what did she say?"

"S'y! I wush ye'd seen the leuk she gi'ed me!"

"The boys can brush their ain bits," said she; "I'm no' their servant."

I laughed.

"It's well seen she hasn't been brought up in Scotland, or she would
know it was the bounden duty of the girls in the house to wait on the
boys."

"An' a hantle better it is than to see the laddies aye rinnin' efter the
lasses, tendin' them han' an' fut as they dae here. When a man comes
hame efter his d'y's wark, he should be let sit on his sate, an' hae a'
things dune for him."

"David," said Belle, sinking to a footstool at my feet with a dramatic
gesture, "you shall never button my boots again! But seriously," she
continued, as mother withdrew in high dudgeon to her sanctum upstairs,
"I don't think Mary should be expected to brush the boys' boots. We
didn't engage her as servant, and even if we had, there isn't a hired
girl in this part of the country that wouldn't make a fuss if she had to
brush the boots of the man of the house, not to mention the boys. We'll
have to pack Mary off somewhere, if only to keep the peace."

So Mary was sent to a convent, and at the end of three months came back
for her holidays to our summer cottage at Interlaken. Being so near the
big lake does not agree with my mother, and she rarely spends more than
a week with us there, but during July and August visits my married
sister in town. The coast was clear for Belle and me to decide what
progress had been made in the making of Mary, and we fancied we
discovered a good deal.

"What have they done to you, those nuns, to tone you down so quickly,
Mary?" I asked, as she sat beside me,