LINKS.

And yet it would be so nice to give mamma a pleasant surprise, such as
Ruth Hill had prepared for Miss Trevor!

At last Lydia had a happy thought. She would teach Herbert the
alphabet !

At first he was quite delighted with the idea. He got on famously with
a, b,c, andd. Perhaps he began to get tired of his new task then. Perhaps
his little teacher tried to force him on too quickly. Perhaps h’s and k’s are
very much alike when we first make their acquaintance! Anyhow, there were
days when Herbert was very tiresome, and when Lydia’s little cheeks would
grow red and hot. There were even some tears and a little chiding and fret-
ting. I wonder whether Nurse Snow had any idea what was in Lydia’s mind
when one day the little girl asked wistfully, “Does Ruth Hill teach her
brother every day? Doesn’t she ever get tired and leave off?”

‘Bless you, no, child!” nurse answered quite confidently, far more confi-
dently than Ruth would have answered for herself! ‘‘ The proof of a pudding
is in the eating,” said nurse; ‘‘and if there was any getting tired and leaving
off, there would be no real getting on. It’s steady that does it. Races are
not won with a hop, skip, and jump.”

Lydia gave a little sigh, and coaxed Herbert back to his book, and caught
him for his task every day, just at the time when he was most in the mood for
it. Lydia herself was learning far more than she was teaching Herbert, as we
are always the greatest gainers whenever we give. Her own governess found
her much more attentive and painstaking than she had ever been before,
because she had learned what negligence in the pupil means to the teacher.
Then, too, she discovered that when we wish to get anything accomplished, we
have to think of other people as well as ourselves, and to study their wishes
and ways, at least as much as our own wills. For she found that Herbert got
on far better if she took him when he was inclined to learn, than he did if she
caught him when she was inclined to teach, but when he wanted rather to spin
his top or to play with the kitten.

Lydia never got that reward in hope of which she had started on her sis-
terly endeavor. For long before Herbert was perfect in his alphabet, papa and
mamma had gone away on a visit to the Continent, and were not likely to
return within the year; and before that time Herbert was to be given over
to the governess, and Lydia’s little effort would be swamped in the result of
her trained skill.