SCHOOL DAYS AT ST. MARY'S.

than mamma did her death. This made Julia say no
one would be foolish enough to think any of the Gre"
family wanting in feeling if Emily were a fair speci-
men of it, and that was all said about it.
 Miss Wilmot's task was much easier than it had
been before Midsummer; this was partly owing to
the more frequent presence of Mrs. Palmer in the
schoolroom, and partly also to the fact that Lydia's
and Emily's quiet perseverance in well-doing was
beginning to tell on the others. There was another
reason. Susan had come back thoroughly in earnest
and anxious to do right, and as she had always been a
great favourite with her companions, even her strictness
in doing her duty and her evident serious intentions
did not vex them as the others had done, and more
than one came over to the side of right, in consequence.
Julia was still as provoking as ever, but the few well-
disposed girls upheld Miss Wilmot's authority, and so
the half-year came to an end with far less trouble than
usual; and when the last day came, with a prospect of
being separated for an indefinite time (for Susan and
Lydia were both going to leave), the friends made an
agreement, after the manner of romantic school-girls,
that, if possible, they would meet, or at least have
some communication with each other, that day twenty
years hence.
 $ *
 Twenty years! What a time it seems to look
forward to, and how truly like a tale that is told when
it is gone. It was the sixteenth of December, but
instead of cold biting winds and frost, the warm, soft
breeze of the Australian summer was whispering
gently through the leaves of the fern tree sheltering
the missionary's log house about twenty miles from
Melbourne. Mrs. Edwardes, the missionary's wife,