ring, and
what does this old friend of mine do, but allow a handkerchief to be
pinned to his coat-tail, and go prancing along the street like a horse
for the spoiled brat to drive. The calf! I declare, before I'd make such
a fool of myself as that, I'd eat my head! What are you writing there,
uncle?"

"Only taking notes of these remarks, Tom," answered Mr. Wharton, "for
your benefit on some future occasion."

There was only one in that Christmas party who could not heartily join
in the glee; it was poor Emily, to whom this scene brought back so
vividly other holiday seasons passed with those who had "gone from earth
to return no more," that only by a strong effort could she prevent her
own sadness from casting a shade over the happiness of others; for they
all loved cousin Emily so dearly, that they could not be merry when she
was sad. Emily was usually so quiet, that in their noisy play they did
not miss her as she retired to the sofa and shaded her eyes with her
hand; but her kind uncle noticed her, and readily understood the reason
of her sadness. Taking a seat by her he put his arm around her, and took
her hand in his. This act of tenderness was too much for poor Emily's
already full heart, and laying her head on her uncle's shoulder, she
sobbed out her grief unchecked.

IV.

Cousin Betty.

"Come, wilt thou see me ride!"--HENRY VIII.

Cousin Betty was a little bit of a woman, with a face as full of
wrinkles as a frozen apple, and a pair of the busiest and most twinkling
little black eyes you ever saw, a prominent and parrot like nose, with a
chin formed on the very same pattern, only that it turned up instead of
down, the two so very nearly meeting that the children said they had "to
turn their faces sideways to kiss her." She had some very unaccountable
ways too, which no one understood, and which she never made any attempt
to explain, perhaps because she did not understand them herself.

For instance, whenever meals were ready, and the family prepared to sit
down, though cousin Betty might have been hovering round for an hour or
two before, she was often missing at that very moment, and when a search
was instituted she was sometimes found taking a stroll in the garret
where she could have no possible business, and sometimes poking about in
the darkest corner of the dark cellar, without the slightest conceivable
object. If her thimble or spectacles were lost, she has often been known
to go to th