is the accompaniment of an industrious and wellspent life; and blessed is our country where all

rich and poor, white and black are free and privileged to attain to this. May some good fairy whisper to every young person who reads this book how it is that he or she, individually, may attain to this high and noble state!

CHAPTER XXIII.

SUMMER RESORT.

AMERICA is not yet wholly built up in cities and towns and cultivated fields: there are wild nooks enough still, and open country everywhere about; and to such a place did the two young girls, Nannine and Gianina, resort with their family to spend the summer of their arrival, after the first greetings and short stay with dear friends in the great city of New York.

It was a true country place indeed to which they went. The following is a description of it, written on the spot: "... A sequestered, quiet place,

a complete old farmhouse, as perfectly in the country as you ever saw; with barn, barnyard, and cows milking, all in view from the parlor window

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at which I am writing; and hens and turkeys all around the house. There is no attempt at embellishment of grounds; no garden, at least, not immediately near the house: I have just discovered one across the yard, behind a stone wall. There is grass about the house, with trees, and a swing for the children.

"It is real New-England country-life; and Nannine and Gianina are enchanted with the freedom of strolling about alone, feeding the chickens, et cætera. They already look like little country-girls, as browned and sunburnt as possible.

"The sea lies in front, but with a quite long walk - an eighth of a mile down to it; and the air at the house is deliciously cool, straight from the water very few of our muslins and laces, I fancy, shall we need.

"The road to the house is, for some distance, across the fields, with gates, and bars to let down. It was quite an adventure getting here:* the boat

*The writer did not go until a week or two after the rest of the family.

had arrived later than usual that evening; and, instead of taking a hack to drive out, for it is

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five or six miles from town, I mounted into a wagon, a common open wagon, which was just ready to return to the farm. It was a long hour, and very dark, before we reached the place to turn into the field; and already it was so late, we found the gates and bars all closed and fastened for the night. So I preferred to leave the wagon, and walk down, the man accompanying me with a lantern which we procured at the cottage near where we left the vehicle.

"One light was seen at the house as we approached; but we knocked and knocked several times before the farmer made his appearance, having already retired to bed. Indeed, it was very late; and the children's mamma, whose rooms were on the other side of the house, did not hear our arrival. She was up, however, with the nurse, and was surprised and amused at my entrance in such a plight. We all enjoyed a hearty burst of laughter.

"The great attraction of the place is being near

a dear aunt and cousins, who live in a charming cottage across the fields. Gianina has been there this afternoon, and has just returned at eight o'clock though scarcely dark this summer evening- with a strange, big dress on. She had been wading with her cousins in a brook, fell in, and

was so completely wet, that she was obliged to put on one of their dresses, which comes down to her feet. She looks comical enough!

"It is such a new sort of life, that the two girls are perfectly fascinated with it. One of the first things they exclaimed to me was, 'You mustn't mind the dinners: they are very simple,-hot meat sometimes, but sometimes cold; but they are very good, very good indeed!' All is perfectly comme il faut to their minds."

One afternoon there was a picnic in a grove, when their little sister Memie also went, and enjoyed it with the rest: even their baby-brother was of the party, now a fine, lovely boy of two years old.

A dear little fellow he was too! How exqui