t myself. Those were counted to
be very pretty verses when I was a child, and I don't know but they
were better than to-day. At any rate, in my day, children were taught
to have a little respect for their elders, and there are very few that
do that now. There were some other verses that I was going to tell a
good deal of the nonsense that children learn you, but if that is your
opinion of those I did tell you, there is no use in my taking so much
trouble."

Miss Abigail looked sorrowful as well as vexed, and Ruby wished that
she had not told her what she thought of the verses.

"I suppose she thinks they are nice," she said to herself; "and mamma
would be sorry if she thought I had been rude to Miss Abigail."

Ruby was going away from her mother so soon that her conscience was
more tender than usual, and she did not want to do what she knew her
mother would not like.

"Please tell me the other verses, Miss Abigail," she said. "I did not
know you liked those other verses, or I would not have called them
ugly."

"I am glad you did not mean to be a rude child," said Miss Abigail,
pleased by Ruby's apology. "Your mother takes so much pains with you
that it would be a pity for you not to be a good child. Yes, I will
tell you the others, and while I am repeating them you can sit down
upon this little ottoman, and pick out the bastings in this sleeve."

While Ruby pulled the basting-thread out, and wound it on a spool as
Miss Abigail had taught her, half wishing that she had not said
anything about the other verses, since she might now have been out at
play with Ruthy, Miss Abigail repeated some more of the verses she had
learned when she, too, was a little girl like Ruby:--

"'Come, come, Mister Peacock, you must not be proud,
Although you can boast such a train;
For many a bird, far more highly endowed,
Is not half so conceited nor vain.

Let me tell you, gay bird, that a suit of fine clothes
Is a sorry distinction at most,
And seldom much valued, excepting by those
Who only such graces can boast.

The nightingale certainly wears a plain coat,
But she cheers and delights with her song;
While you, though so vain, cannot utter a note,
To please by the use of your tongue.

The hawk cannot boast of a plumage so gay,
But piercing and clear is her eye;
And while you are strutting about all the day,
She gallantly soars in the sky.

The dove may be clad in a p