50 FANNY, AND HER DOG NEPTUNE.

rich, he was getting poorer and poorer. He was an idle
and a selfish man, and he loved pleasure. To the experi-
enced, this would sufficiently explain the waste of his pro-
perty. Our young friends must live and learn. Mrs.
Dale had persuaded him to remove from N- to Rose
Lane, where she thought they might live in retirement
with great economy on the small remnant of their fortune;
but she did not know how bad her husband's affairs were
till about a year after Sarah Tileson's death, when Mr.
Dale died very suddenly. On an examination of her
concerns, Mrs. Dale found that she and Fanny, after her
husband's debts were paid, would be left penniless. The
debts, she resolved, should be paid to the uttermost far-
thing; and, to accomplish this, she was obliged to sell
her furniture, her ornaments, and, indeed, every article
of value she possessed, even to a beautiful dressing-case,
a writing-desk, and a work-table, that had been her bridal
gifts. Fanny never heard her mother express one repin-
ing word that she was obliged to do this. On the contrary,
she cheerfully expressed her gratitude that she was able
to do it; and thus she gave her child a lesson of integrity,
of resolution, and of submission, that sank deeper into
Fanny's heart than if her mother had talked about those
virtues for a month.
 The preparations for leaving Rose Lane went on rapidly.
Mrs. Dale had engaged a place as book-keeper with Mrs.
Smith, a woman who conducted a large millinery, and
very near to whom was the school at which Fanny was to
be placed. They were to leave Rose Lane the following
day. Fanny took her last walk with Neptune, and was
coming up the steps on to the piazza with him, talking, as
usual, as if he understood and could reply to her. Poor
Neptune," said she, do you know this is to be our last
walk together for many a day ? But they will be kind to
you at Mr. Thorne's, for they are kind to everything that
lives; and every Saturday I shall come out to see you,
and Mr. Thorne says, Neptune, the meeting of friends
pays for the parting."
 Mr. Thorne, a neighbour, and very kind friend of Mrs.