198 CHILDREN'S BOOK FOR SABBATHI HOURS.

 she can't have such an awful sight, no
 ON A MISSION.
 Basket or bundle, plain enough. Well, I
 ii ITTLEN Miss Anna Bolton dresses must go to my work, and wish Mrs. Van
 I! r-elf quietly, and, heedless of Brunt good luck, and Miss Anna a bless-
 S'.1 and storm, goes out across ing, wherever she goes."
 "the common towards Mrs. Van So, dear reader, supposing you and I
Brunt's shabby old house, Jeannette, the follow Miss Anna in her walk across the
housemaid, always says to the cook: common, and down the lane, so pretty
 "Miss Anna has gone out on a mission, and shady in summer, and see where she
I know. I can tell by the look on her face, is going, and what her "mission may be.
just as she leaves the house." I will just whisper in your ear, as we walk
 "What kind of a look is it, Jeannette," along, that though she has no basket or
says Betsey. bundle, as housemaid and cook have cer-
 Oh, a patient look, and earnest and tified, I saw her put in her pocket a neat
happy, too. I can always tell it." little housewife, with needles and thim-
 "Well, that is a good kind of a look I ble and scissors, several spools of differ-
am sure," says the cook. Do you think ent colored cotton, and in her little muff
she is going to Mary Van Brunt's this is hidden a clean white apron, all of which
morning ? She seems to set stores by articles speak of work in perspective.
that woman, and all six of her young ones, Miss Anna is a very interesting look-
too. Poor things! they have a pretty ing young lady, tall and slight, with a
hard row of it all the time." gentle, quiet face, full of kindness and
 Yes, they do, Betsey, that's so; and love ; and as she walks quickly along, in
they are kind of decent folks, too, and try her simple dress and hat, her hands bur-
to do what they can; but he has the ied in her warm muff, we should know
rheumatism awful bad half the time; and she was always a lady, and would be a
then, you know, his sight is amazing poor; lady in whatever situation she might
and she has such a family on her hands, be placed. She little heeds the wind
But there is not a bad one in the whole that sweeps over the common, scatter-
lot yet. No knowing what they will be ing the withered leaves, and whirling
when they gets growed up." them through the air, settling now on the
 "Oh, I guess they'll always be a kind ground or on some ragged bush, and then
of decent like, and if they have a little on Miss Anna's dark dress or among the
help once in a while, like what Miss Anna I unpretending trimming on her pretty hat.
does for them, I guess they'll keep grow- She bends a little as the gusts sweep by,
ing decenter and decenter. I wish I but still keeps on her way.
knew what our young lady is up to, now. She has crossed the common, and now
She is not carrying them anything, as I picks her way down the broad lane, and
can see. With both hands in her muff, approaches a low, uninviting looking