e, and they told him how the French did things,
'Rollo laughed long and loud.' It was so unusual. I read it over and
over, but I couldn't tell what he laughed at. I think he might have
explained, but I suppose he forgot."

It certainly was a pleasant thing to see Rollo surrounded by a group of
kindred spirits. They were the healthiest and happiest Youths in the
company, for they had lived a great deal in the open air, and had kept
their eyes open.

Rollo was engaged in a dispute with little Francis about the comparative
merits of New England and a Desert Island for farming. Jonas said
little, but what he did say carried great weight.

Rollo expressed himself as highly pleased with the Symposium. He was
sorry that there was not time for a paper on "The New Boy" and a
discussion of the question, "Are not the Young Growing Younger?" He said
he had seen some dangerous tendencies in that direction.

Having said this, Rollo walked to the other side of the room, and having
found a settee, sat down on it.

Scarcely had Rollo sat down when Miss Muffet saw a little girl whose
face was very familiar.

[Illustration: "_I don't think I ever knew two persons more different_"]

"You are Rosamond, aren't you? And once you bought a beautiful purple
jar instead of shoes, even though your old shoes had holes in them?"

"It was a youthful indiscretion," said Rosamond, "and I have learned a
lesson from it."

"It was just lovely. Any one can have shoes, but a purple jar is
something one dreams about: it's almost as good as having a party."

Then she looked very anxiously at Rosamond and said,--

"I hope it didn't happen to you? Since first I read the story Miss
Edgeworth told about you and the purple jar, I couldn't get out of my
head the dreadful lines with which she begins,--

'O teach her while your lessons last
To judge the future by the past,
The mind to strengthen and anneal
While on the stithy glows the steel.'

It seemed such a dreadful thing to have your mind annealed, and you so
little. I'm sure it's something uncomfortable. And then how hard it was
for your mamma to make you _choose_ to do all the unpleasant things. I
don't mind doing them when I'm told to, but to have to choose them
rumples up my mind. That must have been an awful time when you had to
choose a needle-book instead of that funny stone plum that you could
have fooled the boys with."

"But Mamma wanted to train