INTIMATE FRIENDS.

I AM now an old woman, and I hope that my friends would say of me that I am a steady, quiet sort of person, who is content to divide her time between her needlework, her household duties, her attendance on divine service, and a few visits to her neighbours. But the time was when I was a wild, unruly girl; and if not what is called wicked, it was altogether through the restraining grace of God, by which I was kept back from irrecoverably disgraceful actions; and by which my reputation, of which I took no care myself, was preserved for me until I was led to put some value upon it. But, as I much fear, if I began my little volume with long and serious discussions, that my young readers would throw it down before they had read many pages, I must omit further reflections, and proceed without loss of time to such passages of my history as seem most interesting to the public.

My father was a military officer, who, having seen much active service, retired, when about fifty years of age, to a little patrimony which he possessed on the borders of Wales, in one of the fairest though wildest regions of our lovely island.

Whoever may have chanced to see a little white house on the declivity of a hill, imbosomed in tufted trees where birds sing, leaves rustle, and waters murmur, may fancy such to have been my father's residence, for it was indeed a mere cottage, until two large and pleasant rooms were added to it when he first proposed to make it his abode. I was so unfortunate as to lose my mother when I was about ten years of age; but I felt this loss the less from having several sisters, some considerably older than myself, as well as some younger, and several brothers. Eldest sisters are sometimes a little tyrannical, but mine was the gentlest of gentle creatures, and as full of care for us all as if she had been

our mother. She was as much as ten years older than myself, and between her and my youngest brother were as many as eight brothers and sisters of different ages. We were considered a fine family, and to this day I recollect all their figures, among which were several decidedly lovely faces, and not one that was not at least comely and pleasing.

Our dear father took much pains with our education, and if I was not all that a tender parent might wish, it was not his fault. His other children indeed gave him perfect satisfaction-they were good children; but I troubled him and my brothers and sisters very much, and all from one strange inclination which I had, and which I believe is common to wayward young people. This was the propensity which I always showed for keeping myself, in some degree, apart from my own family, in order that I might cultivate the friendship of other people; not considering that brothers and sisters are friends and companions appointed by the Almighty, and that, in most cases, they are fast friends, who, however selfish they may seem in some particular instances, cannot choose but to be interested in each other's welfare, inasmuch as each must be a partaker in the disgrace which happens to either. Hence, the advice of a brother or of a sister may always be welcomed as being more pure and disinterested than that of strangers; and if to the natural union of interests is added the sweet and habitual interchange of elegant courtesies, how infinitely dear must that bond become which unites them! and how delightfully, in such cases, is the intention of a tender Providence fulfilled! But with what carelessness or impatience do young people often rend asunder those natural ties which ought to bind them together as the sons and daughters of one common parent! and how often do we see the bitterest enmities among those who have reposed in the same cradle, and have been fostered on the same bosom !

As I before said, the great error into which I fell was the love that I had for forming intimacies with strangers. With these I suppose that I felt myself more easy than with my brothers and sisters; because these last were accustomed to tell me of my faults, whereas the companions whom I chose for myself found it more convenient and agreeable to sooth and flatter me, and to pass over what I happened to do amiss.

My first particular friend was our housemaid. I was about eight years old when this intimacy began. I used to slip away from my sisters, and get to Susan whenever I could; and I had many opportunities, for my eldest sister, being then young and inexperienced, was not so watchful as an older person might have been.

It was happy for me that Susan was not a profligate girl, and that I did not derive so much evil from her society as I might otherwise have done; but, nevertheless, she gave me many strange notions. She was from the interior of Wales, and was very superstitious, so that she filled my mind with all sorts of frightful fancies about witches, and spirits, and candles burning about graves, and walking in procession, and omens, and prodigies, and lights seen in the woods on moonless nights. And though I now know the absurditiy of these things, yet to this day I cannot quite recover from the gloomy impressions which they made upon my mind. When I was about ten years old, my friend was sent away for admitting a gipsy into the house to tell her fortune, and for shutting her up in the pantry, where she pocketed a silver tankard. I was then like one utterly destitute of comfort, and cried, and fretted, and made myself so disagreeable, that those of my sisters who were about my own age were quite offended; and as I took no pains to conciliate them, the departure of Susan did not bring me much nearer to my real friends.

But here am I proceeding rapidly with my story, and have not yet told you my name. I could not think of troubling you with the names of all my brothers and sisters; for it will be sufficient for you to know that my name is Isabella, and that those of my eldest brother and sister were Robert and Sarah; while my father was known through all the parish by the title of the captain, there being no other captain within its precincts.

After Susan had left us, my heart remained disengaged for a short time, and I do not recollect to have entertained any other intimate friendship, until a sister of my father, who resided at Bath, came to visit us, and staid during the three summer months, when I was in my twelfth year. My aunt brought with her a maidservant, whose business it was to dress her hair, and assist her in putting on her clothes: and I recollect that I was very much struck with the first appearance of

Mrs. Jenny, when she stepped out of the carriage after my aunt. I thought I could not enough admire a yellow stormant gown with green trimmings and flounces, that she wore, which, it afterward appeared, had descended to her from her lady, and which, with a blue satin bonnet, seemed in my eyes to excel all that I had ever seen of the superb and the magnificent. It was some time, however, before I could venture to approach so great a lady: but one morning chancing to see her at work in my aunt's apartment, surrounded with strips of gauze riband and tiffany, out of which she was preparing a cap for her mistress, I ventured into the room, and being received very affably, we from that time became sworn friends. She soon contrived to get out of me as much of the history of the family as it was in my power to give her: and if I told her no secrets, it was because I knew none, and not on account of any discretion of my own, for I allowed her to make what remarks she chose upon my brothers and sisters, and even upon my father and aunt; and, after a short time, she gained such power over my mind, that I was more afraid of offending her than even of offending my heavenly Father. The consequences of this intimacy were more mischievous than those of the last. From Mrs. Jenny I learned all the gossip of the South Parade, where my aunt lodged in Bath; and when I heard of little girls like myself dressed in satins, and brocades, and wearing lace aprons, and gauze caps with artificial flowers, and going to plays and balls, and being admired at the dancing-school, and, what was still worse, at church, I became quite discontented, and thought myself very unhappy. I began to despise my white muslin bonnet and tippet, and my Sunday frock sprinkled over with strawberries half-hid in their leaves, which I once thought so pretty, and I no longer took any delight in the simple pleasures still so sweet to my brothers and sisters. A game at hide-and-seek in the woods, a feast of cakes and fruit in a natural bower, a dance under a tree, and a story told by my father or my eldest sister in the dusk of the evening, when we were all gathered round the glimmering light of a few embers, were things for which I had lost all relish long before Mrs. Jenny returned with her mistress to her gay home at Bath.

But the dearest friends cannot always be together.

The carriage was at length ordered to carry away my intimate acquaintance, and when I had watched it as far as my eye could follow it, I went into my own room, where I sat grieving, or rather sulking, until my father was under the necessity of rousing me by a lecture on my folly, added to which was a command that I should come and join my sisters, and pursue my usual employments.

My next friend was, at first sight, rather a more valuable one than any I had chosen before. She was a second cousin, who, having lost her mother, had been brought up in her father's house, under an old unmarried great-aunt, whom she had been in the habit of deceiving in many ways, the old lady being not only half-blind, but nearly deaf, and what was worse, so wholly addicted to card-playing that she could not get through a single evening without her pool at quadrille. Miss Bessy, my cousin, was, in consequence, by no means the person who was worthy to enjoy that place in my affections which justly belonged to my eldest sister, although she was more than a year older than my dear Sarah. Her father was an apothecary in a small country town, who, being often from home, knew little of the ways of his child; and, as her education had been entirely neglected, when she came to visit us she could scarcely write a note, stammered at long words when reading, and was skilled in no other arts than such as tended to enable her to dress better with her small allowance than she might otherwise have done.

But although so entirely ignorant of all intellectual, not to speak of spiritual, subjects, the mind of Miss Bessy was abundantly stored with the histories of many families, private as well as public. What a number of tales could she tell of family quarrels, runaway matches, undutiful sons, tyrannical fathers, silly mothers, and dishonest servants, and of other matters of the same description! and how clever she was in vamping old bonnets, stiffening old gauze, and contriving new trimmings! and, in fact, she entitled herself to my whole heart by trimming my white muslin bonnet with some pink gimp, found in an old store-chest which had belonged to my grandmother. From that auspicious morning Miss Bessy and I were inseparable, and she helped forward my education from the point in which Mrs. Jenny had left it; for, whereas Mrs. Jenny had