them."

"But we haven't got any _Botany books_," said little Jessie.

"Oh, I think we shall not need any _books_, for all the Botany I shall
teach you, Jessie; and if we do, we will take the leaves of the flowers
for the leaves of the books, and the flowers themselves for the
pictures. Do you not think we can make beautiful books that way? Jessie,
can you read?"

"_I_ can!" said Rosa, while Jessie hung her curly head.

"And can you _write_, Rosa?"

"No. I can make straight marks," answered Rosa.

"And what can you do, Master Frank?"

"Oh, Frank doesn't know anything?" said Jessie. "He did know his ABC's
once, but he's forgot them all."

"Take care, Miss Jessie, that he does not read before you," said Agnes.
"Your papa says we are to take the west wing for our school-room; you
must show me where it is, and after a day or to get in order, and to
make each other's acquaintance, we will begin school in earnest."

The next morning Agnes took the toilettes of her two little room-mates
under her care, and when they appeared at the breakfast-table, the rest
of the family hardly knew them, they looked so tidy and sweet. And poor
Tiney, who gazed with astonishment at her two little sisters, made her
appearance at Agnes' door soon after breakfast, to ask "if she wouldn't
make _her_ look nice too."

Agnes found so little to sympathise with, and took so little pleasure in
the society of the ladies of the Fairland family, that she longed for
her school to begin, that she might have useful occupation for her
thoughts and time. On the appointed morning therefore, she was well
pleased to meet her little pupils in the pleasant little room in the
"west wing," and to begin in earnest her labors as a teacher. Such a
pile of soiled, well-thumbed, and dogs-eared books, as the children
produced, Agnes had never seen together, and on opening them she found
that the young Fairland's had been exercising their taste for the fine
arts, by daubing all the pictures from a six-penny paint-box.

"Now, my dear children," said she, "the first thing we shall do every
morning, will be to read in the Bible; but I do not see any Bible or
Testament among your books; I suppose you each own one, do you not?"

If Agnes had been a little longer in the family of Mr. Fairland, perhaps
she would not have asked this question; for she soon found that she had
come into a family of as complete heathens, as she would have found if
she had gone to be governe