56 TROTTY'S WEDDING TOUR.

attacked them. The lady chose her “ subjects.’ She chose
her own subjects. “Outlines” and “plans” and “ skele-
tons’ and “suggestions” were given to her. She made
outlines and plans and skeletons and suggestions of her own.
She wrote poetry. She tried blank verse, and the metres of
Horace. She wrote upon the beauties of nature, and the
price of coal. She tried her hand at romance and essays.
She effected “ abstracts’? of sermons, and “ abridgments ”’
of history, and “ topics” of all varieties. The editor of the
Wednesday Evening Early Visitor was very faithful with
her, — very.

But one day Jem brought her a composition on Icarus.
Poor Jem had cried all night, and studied all day, upset
three ink-bottles, and spoiled one dress; the bulwark of
dictionaries and elements danced before her dizzy eyes in a
hopeless mass of horror, — and this was the composition on
Icarus : —

Icarus.

Icarus was the son of Daedalus. They fled from Minos.
Icarus made wings of wax, which melted. He fell into the
Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the lovely and accomplished
Una carried him and her father Anchises upon her ee
through the siege of Troy.

The Editor of the Wednesday Evening Early Visitor read
this, and there was a pause.
“T think,” said the Editor of the Wednesday Evening