in a house of business in the City at the magnificent salary of fifteen shillings per week. Nothing could well be finer than the way in which, at the end of the first week, he hands over to Pink May a ten-shilling piece, as his contribution towards housekeeping, or the magnificent air with which he bestows sixpence a piece on the twins, or the pride with which he informs Green Sleeves that he is going to give her a grand treat the following Sunday-an afternoon in the country.

He walks three miles to his work in the morning, leaving here at six, traversing the same distance at night, usually returning home so dead beat as to be even incapable of eating, his only hunger being sleep.

Often after my long night vigils, on reaching the attic we share between us, I pause to look down on the boyish face, and a pang seizes my heart to see how pale it grows. But not

from me shall fall one word of discouragement; every fierce, well-sustained effort brings us one step nearer to Sieviking; and, with that bitterness of spirit which bids fair to be the ruling motif of my life, I find it in my heart to envy the lad his few poor shillings, honestly earned by the sweat of his brow.

For all my daylight toil, my midnight work, what have I to show? Sometimes when the lust of gold, for Sieviking's sake, is on me, and the feu sacré burns dim in my soul, I ask myself, "Is not my choice a mistake, and should I not be doing better to adopt some calling, however humble, in which I could be earning my bread, instead of living dependent on others, as for years I must do ?"

But one hour at my books soon disperses such thoughts, or, rather, they spur me on to fresh exertions; and, by perseverance, who is a handmaid (while genius is a master, and very

uncertain in his charioteering), I have good hopes of attaining the present object of my desires.

One should not look too far ahead; one should see what is exactly under one's nose, and pursue it till caught. Give me the scholarship, for which I am now working night and day, and I shall not be long in looking a-field for something else.

CHAPTER IV.

"It fell about the Lammas time,

When flowers were fresh and green,
Lizzie Baillie to Gartartan went

To see her sister Jean."

T is nearly two months since Hetty started off, in all the flush of her high hopes, and youth and beauty, Tales of her doings

for Hungerford.

filter through to us from Jill, and from these accounts it would appear that she is having a very good time of it generally. We, too, have had our modest share of good luck, for I have won my scholarship, and some

thing of that feeling of independence, after which I have lately longed so bitterly, is mine. Anak, too, has got a rise of five shillings a week, so that in his opinion Sieviking is half won,

In these last days of September, that to me are an oasis of rest between the cessation of one toil and the commencement of another, our little home seems to me a very happy one. We have ease of heart, freedom from debt, moderate reward for honest endeavour, love for and trust in one another; and when of evenings the curtains are drawn, and the lamp is lit, one could not wish to see a happier, healthier circle of faces than that which clusters round the old school-room table. Our dear Pink May knits, Jill mends and sews, Green Sleeves gallantly attacks a piece of woolwork destined to cover the sofa with glory when finished (if ever), Anak makes nets, and