e taken into a good many secrets which
surprised and touched her.

"Well, first I want you to buy an interesting book, the sort that a boy
would like, to cost about six or seven shillings, and have it sent to
this address; you can put in my card and say I hope the boy will like
it. Are they poor, did you say? No, not very, but this boy is the 'ugly
duckling' of the family, and everybody snubs him, they say he is so dull
and stupid, and I think a little kindness will help him to assert
himself. Then go to the poulterer's, and have a turkey or goose sent to
these addresses."

"Oh, Aunt Mary," exclaimed Ella, aghast, "I daren't choose turkeys, I
don't know anything about them."

"Stuff and nonsense, my dear!" replied her aunt, who had little pity on
ignorance; "it is high time you learnt, then. You had better get a
basket of nice hothouse fruit for the Miss Duquenes; they are as proud
as princesses and as poor as church mice. I don't believe they get half
enough to eat; you must manage to give them some money, somehow."

"Would postal orders do? I could post them in the town, and there is no
need to put any name on them."

"Very well; they are nasty new-fangled things, but I suppose you must
use them; there were no such things when I was young. And do not forget
to go to Miss Alexander's as soon as you can. Dear me! I had no idea
Christmas was so near; she ought to have had her order long ago."

"Is that the queer-looking little lady with blue spectacles?"

"Yes; she used to be a governess, but people think no one can teach
children unless they have certificates and degrees now-a-days, and her
eyesight failed too, so she has to live on a small annuity, but she can
see to knit, and she likes to make a few things to sell when she can.
You had better ask her to make a nice warm shawl for your mamma, and one
of those nice little garments, boot-socks and overalls in one, for the
Jenkins' baby; ten to one its mother is sending it out with hardly
anything on its poor little legs, and its head and shoulders wrapped up
like an Eskimo. You can look round and see if she seems to have anything
else made ready, and buy a few little things."

Ella did not much like these vague and general orders; she would much
rather have been told exactly how much to pay for each article, but she
promised to do her best.

Mrs. Wilson's last commission was to call on an old gentleman, in feeble
health, who had lost his money through the failu