unfortunate skirt, its crape trimmings greatly bespattered with ruddy
mud. Then recollecting how mamma would have shaken her head at that
very thing, she regretted the temper she had betrayed, and in a
larmoyante voice, sighed, "I wish I could pick my way better. Some
people have the gift, you have hardly a splash, and I'm up to the
ankles in mud."

"It is only taking care," said Richard; "besides your frock is so
long, and full. Can't you tuck it up and pin it?"

"My pins always come out," said Ethel, disconsolately, crumpling the
black folds into one hand, while she hunted for a pin with the other.

"No wonder, if you stick them in that way," said Richard. "Oh!
you'll tear that crape. Here, let me help you. Don't you see, make
it go in and out, that way; give it something to pull against."

Ethel laughed. "That's the third thing you have taught me--to thread
a needle, tie a bow, and stick in a pin! I never could learn those
things of any one else; they show, but don't explain the theory."

They met Dr. May at the entrance of the town, very tired, and saying
he had been a long tramp, all over the place, and Mrs. Hoxton had
been boring him with her fancies. As he took Richard's arm he gave
the long heavy sigh that always fell so painfully on Ethel's ear.

"Dear, dear, dear papa!" thought she, "my work must also be to do all
I can to comfort him."

Her reflections were broken off. Dr. May exclaimed, "Ethel, don't