14 The Fairy Godmothers.

children are playing. The eldeft, a girl of ten,
you may fee yonder lounging—gracefully perhaps
—but ftill lounging in a rocking chair which fhe
is {winging backwards and forwards, having fet it
in motion by the aétion of her foot on the floor.
What a lovely face! Ido not think you ever faw
one fo handfome except in a print in one of
Mamma’s beft pifture books. All the features are
perfeétly good and in proportion, and the dark
blue eyes are fringed by the longeft eyelafhes ever
feen. The hair of this little girl too — look at it,
as the foft chefnut ringlets wave about on her
fhoulders as fhe fwings, and fhow the round rich-
nefs of the curls.

Now if you afk about the expreffion on her
face, I muft tell you it was rather languid and
“ penfierofo.” Penfierofo is an Italian word really
meaning thoughtful — but this little girl was not
thinking, for then the expreffion of her face would
have been much ftronger and firmer and lefs lan-
guid ; but the word has got to be ufed for a fort of
awake-dreamy ftate when one lets thoughts float
lazily along without having any energy to dwell
upon them, and fee whether they are good or bad.

The thought that was pafling through this little
girl’s head at the time I mention and which made
her look fo languid and penfierofo, was

«¢ T wifh it was 6 o’clock.”

Now here you are ready to laugh, I know, for
there was nothing to look fo languid about, in “ I