BBAMPTON-AMONG-THE-ROSES.

 Christabel, like an experienced general, went
round to arrange her woolly forces in their' proper
places; and I thought, while watching her, many
of them looked up to her for instructions; and I
have seen few prettier sights than the troop of
lambs that ran bleating at her heels, to be conducted
to their dams after the clipping." She would often
stoop down and kiss their pretty little foreheads,
before leaving them, and her girlish companions would
follow her example, and some that had been very much
petted in the house would hold up their heads as if
they expected the caress.
 But the prettiest sight of all was at the sheep-
shearing feast, when they placed garlands of flowers
around the necks of their favourite lambs, and driving
them in the centre danced around them, the plaintive
low bleating of the innocent creatures which the
dancers enringed making pleasant rural music, such as
is often heard in the country mingled with the low-
ing of kine, and seemed quite in keeping with the
scene.
 For the village boys and all who liked to partake
of it, plenty of furmity was made, which appears
to have been a favourite dish at English merry-
makings centuries back, and consisted of creed
wheat" boiled soft, and served up with plenty of rich
milk, sweetened, and full of currants. This all the
children had to partake of, and many of the adults
were partial to it, though we seldom found them ex
ceeding a moderate sized basin-full, for, as the
country-people say, it is -very "cloying," though
" stolen is an older word. Sometimes the furmity
was sweetened with honey, and the wheat boiled until
the grains cracked and mingled the floury portion with
the sweet milk, and was something like a barley pud-