terest yourself in your lessons as much as you do in things that only concern other people."

"I think I'll keep the shop myself," Mr. Shrugg said, with mock gravity; but even while he joined in the laugh his words caused, he sighed.

"What are the others?" his wife asked, pointing to two large unopened letters by his plate.

"Oh, circulars, I suppose," he answered; and then he asked for more coffee, and pushed the letters aside.

Before they all separate for the morning, these half a dozen daughters may as well be introduced to the reader. First comes Susysweet Susy Shrugg, as one or two infatuated youths called her. Susy, whose soft, fair face had looked a little grave and drooping ever since H. M. S. ship Lion had sailed from Portsmouth with Lieutenant William Somers, who had gone to join his battery at Poogallah, there to pick up laurels or fever, medals or

cholera. A ring on her pretty left hand, and a corpulent locket, according to the fashion of the day, to warn the beholder of her engagement; while to Susy's simple, devoted heart they represented a very sacred tie never to be broken in this world or the next. Susy Shrugg, with her large soft eyes, her rippling hair, her graceful figure, and above all, her tender, honest disposition, might have been expected to marry well. I mean well, according to the general acceptation of the word; for instance, an elderly peer, or a rich merchant : at least to marry a fine house, handsome carriages, etc. But Susy had given her whole soul to a lieutenant with nothing but his pay; had passed her word to keep what might be a long engagement, during which she would lose her youth, may be, in vague expectation for the promotion that would not come; and would perhaps find herself stranded when that blooming youth had gone, bereft even of the consolation of mourning her lover as his widow. At least, this is

She

how her friends put the case before her. Her parents could only withhold their consent till they saw how deeply the young peoples' happiness was concerned, when they gave in cheerfully and kindly; but Susy herself took a very different view, she had few forebodings, none about her own or her lover's constancy. said little on the subject, but hope was very strong in her breast; and her happy smiles as she brooded on his words and letters were more than tears for his absence. At twentyone, life still wears its brightest hues; and sweet Susy Shrugg counted more sunshine than gloom in her life's future yet.

Margaret comes next, the handsomest of all the sisterhood; and she knew it too; but with all her beauty she was preserved from conceit of it by the humbling fact, that though at first every one bowed to her superior charms, and eagerly sought an introduction to her, yet in the end it was Susy who had the lasting homage. Margaret knew the secret of her

elder sister's greater popularity; knew well enough that it lay in Susy's ability to sympathise with each one's joys and sorrows, were they ever so small and uninteresting; while she herself, with as warm a heart and a higher intellect, could not smile or weep in chorus. Circumstances would make her either a grand character or a discontented, self-contained one; at present she was only a rather haughty beauty, hardly conscious of her own power either of mind or person; there was neither ring nor locket in her possession; indeed, Miss Margaret was accustomed to speak rather slightingly of lovers; nevertheless, she had her day dreams and castles in the air, and none the less vivid and delightful because she kept them to herself, you may be sure.

The twins are the next in age. Bell and Linda, alias Ditto and Do, each having a profusion of silky brown curling hair, which they wore exactly alike.

Each having charming hazel eyes; and finely pencilled eyebrows, with the reddest lips and rosiest cheeks that ever dimpled into smiles. Their figures only differed: Bell was taller and more slender than Linda. She was more self-reliant, too; and whereas Linda could do nothing without Bell, Bell could decide very well without Linda. Nevertheless, even as they shared one name, neither being complete without the other, so they shared all the joys and troubles of their lives, and neither had as yet planned a plan or wished a wish in which the other was not prominent. That they could ever live apart, or have separate desires, were possibilities quite beyond their thoughts; giggling girls they were yet, barely recognised as young women; yet, seeing fun in everything, and enjoying life as all unsophisticated girls of their age should do, without a thought of its dark shadows any more than the schoolboy thinks of future dyspepsia and indigestion, when he passes his plate for a third help to pork pie.