THE NORTHCROFT LILIES.




 CHAPTER I.
 Give true hearts but earth and sTcy,
 And some flowers to bloom and die,--
 Homely scenes and simple views,
 Lowly thoughts may best infuse."
 Christian Year.

 1UCH a horrid place to go to! I'm sure 1
 shall hate it !" said Gertrude Layton, when
 her elder sister Effie told her that the
 living of Northcroft had been given to
their papa, and they would leave London in February.
 "(It can't be worse than this. No one can call
Newington a very charming place."
 Well, perhaps not; but then we know the people,
and there's poor Nancy! Besides, Lincolnshire is all
fen. I should not mind so much if it were anywhere
else."
 "g How do you know it is all fen?"
 "cWhy, the Geography says so: 'Lincolnshire is
in many parts a marshy and uninteresting county. A
great quantity of wild-fowl is sent from the fens to the
London markets,' and so it goes on. And then King
John lost his baggage in the fens, and it all sounds so
dreary-sedges-and wild geese-and a dead level--
and the Wash Oh, it's horrid I I wish it had been
like Uncle Fred's in Devonshire."
 A 13