BUSY AS A BEE. 29

 "I don't think they would be very happy,"
said Bertha. "I know mamma once gave me a
whole day to myself to do just what I pleased,
and I don't think I ever was so unhappy."
 "And I suppose you never want your own way
now? said Martha. "It cured you, I suppose? "
 "Now, Martha, you are laughing at me," said
Bertha. "You know I insisted upon having my
own way this morning. I must have looked very
cross to make Nurse Bevan say I had the black
dog on my back."
 For some days Bertha was as busy as a bee
among her pets, and the black dog seemed to have
been fairly driven away for the time. Ah no;
he wasn't far off, unfortunately; he must just have
retired to some comfortable hole in the barn, per-
haps among the hay. One morning, to Bertha's
great surprise, Mrs. Bevan proposed that they
should go down to the village to see the school-
mistress, for the purpose of asking her to enrol
Bertha as a pupil.
 "But, Nurse Bevan," said Bertha, "I don't
want to go to school, if you please; I always said
my lessons to mamma at home: and my chickens
are growing so big and so wild, they require to
be constantly watched."