afternoon was again devoted to a long nap: and in the evening
Josephine reclined on the front-parlour sofa, and entertained herself by
running her finger a hundred times over the brass nails.

Several days passed on in a similar manner. One morning when they were
all in the play-room, Josephine said to her cousins, "What a very hard
life you are obliged to endure. Neither of you have a moment of rest,
from the time you leave your beds in the morning, till you return to
them at night. First, there is your rising with the sun, and going to
work in your little gardens. I am sure you might make your father's
gardener do all that business."

_Adelaide_. But we take great pleasure in it; and when we see our
flowers growing and blooming, the interest they excite in us is much
increased by knowing that we have raised them from the seed, or planted
the roots ourselves; and that we have assisted their growth by watering,
weeding, tying them, and clearing them from insects. And is it not
pleasant to find that the fruit-stones, we planted a few years since in
our little orchard, have produced trees that are now loaded with fruit?
The red cherries, we had last evening after tea, were from one of my
trees; and the large black cherries were from Rosalind's. And in August,
we shall have our own plums and peaches.

_Josephine_. I am sure it is much less trouble to buy these things, than
to cultivate them; and as to the amusement, I can see none. Then there
are those awful lessons that are always to come on after breakfast. The
writing, and cyphering, and grammar, and geography, and history, one
day: and the French, and music, and drawing, the next: and-the reading
and sewing every afternoon; and the walk every evening. Even your
play-time (as you call it) is a time of perpetual fatigue: your plays
all seem to require so much skill and ingenuity. And then on Saturday
morning, to think that you are obliged to go into the housekeeper's room
and learn to make cakes, and pastry, and sweetmeats, and all such
things. I am sure if I was never to eat cakes till I assisted in making
them, I should go without all my life. It seems to me that your whole
existence is a course of uninterrupted toil.

_Rosalind_. There is much truth in what you say, my dear Josephine. But
I own it never struck me before.

_Adelaide_. We have always been perfectly happy in our occupations and
amusements: and the longest day in summer seems too short for us.

_Jos