a thrifty way, throwing open her window, and beating up her pillows and bolster, and putting them to air. Then she would insist on helping Pussy wash the breakfast things, and she would get her to teach every step of the way to make bread and biscuit and butter, and all nice things. 'It does me good, it amuses me, it gives me my health, and it makes me good for something,' she said. 'If ever I should have use for this knowledge, I shall be at no loss, and you don't know how much happier I am than when I did nothing.'

Now, Pussy dear,' she used to add, 'when I go back to New York this winter, you must come and visit me; for I cannot do without you.'

'Oh!' Pussy would say, laughing, 'you won't like me in New York. I do very well in the country, among the sweet-fern bushes and the bobolinks, but I should be quite lost in one of your New York palaces.'

'No, but you must come and show NewYorkers what a country girl can be. Why, Pussy, you are a great deal better educated than I am, even in things where I have had more advantages than you, just because you have had to struggle for them; you have really set your heart on them, and so have got them. Knowledge has just been rubbed on to me upon the outside, while you have opened your mind, and stretched out your arms to it, and taken it in with all your heart.'

Emily would not be denied, and Pussy's mother said that she ought to have some little holiday, she had always been such a good girl; and so it was arranged that she should go back to New York with Emily when she went.

But Emily was in no hurry to go back, for, as autumn came on, and the long fine days grew cooler, she found that she could walk farther and farther, and spend more and more time in the open air. She had great fun in going chest

nutting, out under the bright gold-coloured chestnut-trees, where the prickly burrs opened and showered down abundance of ripe, glossy nuts. Emily would sometimes come home long after dark, having spent a whole afternoon in searching and tossing about the golden leaves, and bearing her bag of chestnuts in triumphand so hungry that good brown bread and milk tasted like the most delicious luxury.

Then there were walnuts, and butternuts, and wild forest grapes, and bright-crimson barberries, all of which the young maidens went forth to seek, and in pursuit of which they garnered health and strength and happiness.

'Why, Dr. Hardhack,' said Emily's mother, 'I don't see as we shall ever get our Emily home again. I keep writing and writing, and still she says she isn't ready; there is always something ahead.'

'Let her alone, ma'am, let her alone,' said the Doctor.

Give Nature a chance more; you'll

You are

all be tumbling on to her, and trying to undo all the good she's getting, as soon as you get her home; so let her stay as long as possible.' 'O Dr. Hardhack, you are so queer!' 'Truth, ma'am !' said the Doctor. perfectly longing to kill that child; it's all you can do to allow her a chance to breathe. But I insist upon it that she shall keep away from you as long as she has a mind to.'

'Did you ever see such a queer old dear as Dr. Hardhack?' said Emily's mother. 'He does say the oddest things!'

So in the next chapter we shall tell you about Pussy's adventures in New York.

XV.

ELL now, Dr. Hardhack, doesn't our Emily look beautifully?' said

Emily's mother and grandmother

and aunt, all in one breath.

Emily had come home from her long abode in the country, and had brought her friend Pussy Willow with her; and they were sitting together now, a pair of about as rosy young females as one should wish to see of a summer day.

Dr. Hardhack turned round, and glared through his spectacles at Emily.

'Pretty fair,' he said; pretty fair! A tolerable summer's work, that!'-and he gave