FIRS1 DAY AT SCHOOL. 57

knew that not one of all the strangers around her
would detect it more quickly, laugh at it more pro-
vokingly, or report it at home so eagerly as Cousin
Lucy. ‘ How ill-natured Lucy must have been!”
you are all ready to say. No, my young friends,
Lucy was not ill-natured, but always ready to
display her own superiority, even at the expense
of wounding the feclings of another.

The first morning of Mary’s school life was
passed in such an examination of her acquirements
as might enable her teacher to assign her a place
in the various classes of which her school was
composed. To Mrs. Butler’s first question, ‘To
what studies have you ever attended, my dear ?”
Mary found it very difficult to reply. She looked
up and looked down, grew red and grew pale, but
said not a word. Lucy Lovett, who neglected no
opportunity of showing her information on any
subject, called from a distant part of the room,
‘‘Mrs. Butler, Cousin Mary never studied at all;
she never was at school.”

Mrs. Butler saw the workings of quick feeling,
as well as of quick temper, in the tears that sprang
to Mary’s eyes, and the deep red that burned in