Frank observed that he thought Mrs. Crabtree would soon be quite out of practice.

"Laura!" said Major Graham, looking very sly one morning, "have you heard all the new rules that Mrs. Crabtree has made ?"

"No!" replied she in great alarm; "what are they?" "In the first place, you are positively not to tear and destroy above three frocks a-day; secondly, you and Harry must never get into a passion, unless you are angry; thirdly, when either of you take medicine, you are not to make wry faces, except when the taste is bad; fourthly, you must never speak ill of Mrs. Crabtree herself, until she is out of the room; fifthly, you are not to jump out of the windows, as long as you can get out at the door ".

"Yes!" interrupted Laura, laughing, "and sixthly, when uncle David is joking, we are not to be frightened by anything he says!"

"Seventhly, when next you spill grandmama's bottle of ink, Harry must drink up every drop."

"Very well! he may swallow a sheet of blotting paper afterwards, to put away the taste."

"I wish every body who writes a book, was obliged to swallow it," said Harry. "It is such a waste of time reading, when we might be amusing ourselves. Frank sat mooning over a book for two hours yesterday when we wanted him to play. I am sure, some day his head will burst with knowledge."

"That can never happen to you, Master Harry," answered Major Graham; "you have a head, and so has a pin, but there is not much furniture in either of them."

CHAPTER II.

THE GRAND FEAST.

She gave them some tea without any bread,

She whipp'd them all soundly, and sent them to bed.
NURSERY RHYMES.

LADY Harriet Graham was an extremely thin, delicate, old lady, with a very pale face, and a sweet gentle voice, which the children delighted to hear, for it always spoke kindly to them, and sounded like music, after the loud, rough tones of Mrs. Crabtree. She wore her own grey hair, which had become almost as white as the widow's cap which covered her head. The rest of her dress was generally black velvet, and she usually sat in a comfortable arm-chair by the fireside, watching her grandchildren at play, with a large workbag by her side, and a prodigious Bible open on the table before her. Lady Harriet often said that it made her young again to see the joyous gambols of Harry and Laura; and when unable any longer to bear their noise, she sometimes kept them quiet, by telling the most delightful stories about what had happened to herself when she was young.

Once upon a time, however, Lady Harriet suddenly became so very ill, that Dr. Bell said she must spend a few days in the country, for change of air, and accordingly she determined on passing a quiet week at Holi

day House with her relations, Lord and Lady Rockville. Meanwhile, Harry and Laura were to be left under the sole care of Mrs. Crabtree, so it might have been expected that they would both feel more frightened for her, now that she was reigning monarch of the house, than ever. Harry would obey those he loved, if they only held up a little finger; but all the terrors of Mrs. Crabtree, and her cat-o'nine-tails, were generally forgotten soon after she left the room; therefore he thought little at first about the many threats she held out, if he behaved ill, but he listened most seriously when his dear sick grandmama told him, in a faint weak voice, on the day of her departure from home, how very well he ought to behave in her absence, as no one remained but the maids to keep him in order, and that she hoped Mrs. Crabtree would write her a letter full of good news about his excellent conduct.

Harry felt as if he would gladly sit still without stirring, till his grandmama came back, if that could only please her; and there never was any one more determined to be a good boy than he, at the moment when Lady Harriet's carriage came round to the door. Laura, Frank, and Harry helped to carry all the pillows, boxes, books, and baskets which were necessary for the journey, of which there seemed to be about fifty; then they arranged the cushions as comfortably as possible, and watched very sorrowfully when their grandmama, after kindly embracing them both, was carefully supported by Major Graham and her maid Harrison, into the chariot. Uncle David gave each of the children a pretty picture-book before taking leave, and said, as he was stepping into the carriage, "Now, children! I have only one piece of serious, important advice to give you all, so attend to me! —never crack nuts with your teeth!"

When the carriage had driven off, Mrs. Crabtree became so busy scolding Betty, and storming at Jack the foot-boy, for not cleaning her shoes well enough, that she left Harry

and Laura standing in the passage, not knowing exactly what they ought to do first, and Frank, seeing them looking rather melancholy and bewildered at the loss of their grandmama, stopped a moment as he passed on the way to school, and said in a very kind, affectionate voice,

"Now, Harry and Laura, listen both of you!-here is a grand opportunity to show everybody, that we can be trusted to ourselves, without getting into any scrapes, so that if grandmama is ever ill again, and obliged to go away, she need not feel so sad and anxious as she did to-day. I mean to become nine times more attentive to my lessons than usual this morning, to show how trust-worthy we are, and if you are wise, pray march straight up to the nursery yourselves. I have arranged a gown and cap of Mrs. Crabtree's on the large arm-chair, to look as like herself as possible, that you may be reminded how soon she will come back, and you must not behave like the mice when the cat is out. Good bye! Say the alphabet backward, and count your fingers or half-an-hour, but when Mrs. Crabtree appears again, pray do not jump out of the window for joy."

Harry and Laura were proceeding directly towards the nursery, as Frank had recommended, when unluckily they observed in passing the drawing-room door, that it was wide open; so Harry peeped in, and they began idly wandering round the tables and cabinets. Not ten minutes elapsed before they both commenced racing about as if they were mad, perfectly screaming with joy, and laughing so loudly at their own funny tricks, that an old gentleman who lived next door, very nearly sent in a message to ask what the joke was.

Presently Harry and Laura ran up and down stairs till the housemaid was quite fatigued with running after them. They jumped upon the fine damask sofas in the drawingroom, stirred the fire till it was in a blaze, and rushed out on the balcony, upsetting one or two geraniums and a myr

tle. They spilt Lady Harriet's perfumes over their handkerchiefs, they looked into all the beautiful books of pictures, they tumbled many of the pretty Dresden china figures on the floor,-they wound up the little French clock till it was broken,—they made the musical work-box play its tunes, and set the Chinese mandarins nodding, till they very nearly nodded their heads off. In short, so much mischief has seldom been done in so short a time, till at last Harry, perfectly worn out with laughing and running, threw himself into a large arm-chair, and Laura, with her ringlets tumbling in frightful confusion over her face, and the beads of her coral necklace rolling on the floor, tossed herself into a sofa beside him.

"Oh! what fun !" cried Harry, in an ecstacy of delight; "I wish Frank had been here, and crowds of little boys and girls, to play with us all day! It would be a good joke, Laura, to write and ask all our little cousins and companions to drink tea here to-morrow evening! Their mamas could never guess we had not leave from grandmama to invite everybody, so I dare say we might gather quite a large party! oh! how enchanting!"

Laura laughed heartily when she heard this proposal of Harry's, and without hesitating a moment about it, she joyously placed herself before Lady Harriet's writing-table, and scribbled a multitude of little notes, in large text, to more than twenty young friends, all of whom had at other times been asked by Lady Harriet to spend the evening with her.

Laura felt very much puzzled to know what was usually said in a card of invitation, but after many consultations, she and Harry thought at last, that it was very nicely expressed, for they wrote these words upon a large sheet of paper to each of their friends :

Master Harry Graham and Miss Laura wish you to have the honour of drinking tea with us to-morrow, at six o'clock. HARRY and LAURA.

(Signed)