my papa is in me, but I am certain she will cause him many an heart-ache;" and the subsequent history of that young lady, as I have been informed, has fully verified my young friend's prediction.

But although the acquirements of this charming girl were so uncommon, and her judgment so matured; in her plays and amusements, she was quite the child. She had a very large family of dolls, and one in particular, which was her grand favourite; and with whom she would hold very long and entertaining conversations, asking the question, and regularly giving the answer. The subject was frequently about being sent to school. "Do not be uneasy, my dear, I will never send you to a large public school, I have too much regard for you-I wish you to be good and virtuous, and will never subject you to the great injustice and bad examples you will see there." The conversations were generally repeated in her father's presence, as she sat upon a little stool, playing with her dolls in a corner of the room, intending no doubt, that he should hear them. He took no apparent notice; but after she had left the room, I never failed to give him my opinion on the subject; repeating from time to time, the several particulars which she had told me, and urging by every argument in my power, the absolute necessity of removing her immediately from the school. He always gave me a patient hearing, but I know not that I should have succeeded, had it not been for the following circumstance.

My mother having determined to give up her house at Bedale, I was obliged to leave my little friend for about a fortnight, to dispose of some part of our furniture there, and to deposit the remainder in a place of safety, until we should be able to decide where to take up our abcde. During my absence, whilst she was left in some measure to herself, and in proportion as the time grew nearer, that they were to leave Yorkshire, she became more and more unhappy. I found her at my return, looking very ill; and she was soon after attacked by a violent periodical headach, the paroxysms of which were extremely alarming. "What will become of me," she was wont to say, "when I lose you, and must go back to that detested school?"-"I will speak to your papa, my dear, on the subject, who loves you so much, that when he knows how unhappy you are there, he will not, I think, send you again." The late Dr. Hird of Leeds, was consulted, and he gave it as his decided opinion, that the case was nervous. I then told him the agitated state of her mind in her father's presence, and he joined me so effectually in my remonstrances, on the subject of the school, that at length we obtained a complete victory; and Sir George promised, that she should not return thither any more. The next morning at breakfast, when he told her these glad tidings, she sprung from her seat, and throwing her arms about him-" You are indeed, my own dear, good papa, I will love you as long as I live, and I will always do every thing you desire." From

this time she recovered gradually, and in the following November they left Yorkshire, and she was replaced in her former school at Chel

sea.

During my absence at Bedale, on the business already mentioned, she wrote to me many letters, the greater part of which I found upon my dressing-table, when I returned. I have some of them yet in my possession, and preserve them as fair specimens of those opening, intellectual powers, and dawning virtues, which were destined so early, to wither in the tomb.

CHAPTER 26.

Great pecuniary distress at Stank-house....Great perplexities and difficulties....Friendly assistance of Mr. L.....A season of great calamity....Sudden sickness and death of a kind neighbour....Fortitude of his widow....That of the Author put to some trial....Stank-house given up.

AFFAIRS at Stank-house were now quickly tending towards a close. I found on my return thither, that it was become a matter of absolute necessity, that the farm should be relinquished; but how this was to be accomplished, how my brother would dispose of himself, what he was to do afterwards, and how and where my mother and myself were to fix our abode, were mysteries wholly unrevealed. Not a ray of light on any of these perplexing subjects, even glimmered

through the gloom. I had many friends it was true, and my mother was universally beloved; yet there was not one that was fully competent, and at the same time, thoroughly disposed, to assist us in this distressing emergency. At length, a train of unexpected occurrences, sufficiently painful to the parties immediately concerned, but in the unravelling of which, I had some agency, brought Mr. L., a beloved nephew of my mother's, and who has now for some years been one of the directors of the Bank of England, on a visit to Stank-house. To him I communicated the whole of our distressed situation. He assisted me in the painful duty of urging my brother to relinquish his present ruinous undertaking, and prevailed upon him at last, to give immediate notice of his design to quit his farm the following May; helping him also to take an account of stock on the one hand, and of debts on the other. This was a most painful business, and especially as my poor brother was still so completely deluded by the visionary plans which he had so long unfortunately cherished, as to think himself ill-used by the interruption of them, although there remained no other possible means of preserving him from complete ruin.

But the question still occurred-What must he do after leaving Stank-house? my mother had already given him the whole of the ready money she possessed; I was in honour engaged for a debt of £700, and nothing remained but a small estate in Craven, which was her jointure, and was not more than sufficient for her own comfortable

P

support. One thing seemed absolutely necessary; that we should agree to separate from my brother, and in order to make it less painful to all parties, I proposed that she should secure to herself an annuity of £60 per annum, out of the Craven estate, and give up the remainder to him entirely. This arrangement would enable him to pay the interest of the money he had borrowed, and leave something for his present subsistence. To this arrangement, my mother consented, but still the difficult question occurred, where was he to live, and how maintain and occupy himself? My cousin L. very earnestly exhorted him to return again to the Church, where at least he might be certain of obtaining a curacy; and to this as a last resort, he at length very reluctantly consented, determining for the present to retire into Craven.

My dear mother bore this severe trial with a resigned composure, and even cheerfulness, which was truly admirable. When I look back upon it, I must now, as I did then, attribute our deliverance to a kind and gracious Providence, for we could not have requested Mr. L. to have come at that time to Stank-house, had not a severe disappointment of his own, as painful as it was. singular, compelled the visit; a circumstance so very striking, that I cannot help adverting to it, for the purpose of shewing from fact, how wonderfully the great chain of causes and effects is linked together; so that the very same events which in respect to some, may constitute their severest trial, may, in respect of others, be the very means