74 THE DOLL AND HER FRIENDS.

to keep that under restraint while engaged in
writing, he made himself amends by a little praise
of himself, when relating his exploits to a sympa-
thising friend like myself. On his return with the
inkstand to the corner of my shelf, he could not re-
sist sometimes boasting when he had not made a
smgle blot; or confessing to me, in perfect confi-
dence, how much the thinness of Susan’s upstrokes,
or the thickness of her downstrokes, was owing’ to
the clearness of his slit or the fineness of his nib.

The family of which we made part lived fru-
gally and worked hard: but they were healthy and
happy. The father with his boys went out early
in the morning to the daily labour by which they
maintained the family. The mother remained at
home, to take care of the baby and do the work of
the house. She was the neatest and most careful
person I ever saw, and she brought up her daughter
Susan to be as notable as herself

Susan was an industrious little girl, and in her
childish way worked almost as hard as her mother.
She helped to sweep the house, and nurse the baby,
and mend the clothes, and was as busy as a bee.
But she was always tidy; and though her clothes
were often old and shabby, I never saw them dirty
or ragged. Indeed, I must own that, in point of
neatness, Susan was even superior to my old friend