LUCY’S FRIENDS. 71

parations for them, and brought out her toys, and
did her best to amuse them. Before we relate
the result of these efforts, we would remind our
young readers of what we have said of Mary’s
inaccuracies of language. Her desire to please
her Uncle Lovett had done much to overcome
these, but still they were not wholly forgotten ;
and when Mary was excited, so that she spoke
rapidly and without thinking, she often used
them.

For the first hour after the arrival of Master
and Miss Noel, things went on very well. She
dressed the dolls in the style most approved at
fancy balls, and he amused himself with a dis-
sected map of the sovereigns of England; but
when once he had succeeded in putting it to-
gether, the map was thrown aside, and, wander-
ing listlessly about the room, he stopped near the
bird-cages. _ After teasing the canary a minute,
he asked Mary what they fed it on. She told
him hemp and canary seed, sugar, and occasionally
something green.

‘But flies—don’t you give it flies?”

If Mary had been allowed sometimes to use