CHRISTMAS NUMBER A^D ALMANAC 



Then I shook out my tiny hells, and said as plainly as I 

 could speak, " Oh let me go witli you. I want to see the 

 work). You are a friend to nie and mine. Take me with 

 you, that I may learn about myself." 



I tliink I was understood, for the kindly voice said im- 

 mediately; 



" I will take six of your specimens, if I may, and I should 

 like this one particularly." 



Oh, liow my heart beat ; how pleased, how triumphant I 

 felt. I looked round at granny, saying : " Now I shall 

 see the world, now I shall know everything." 



" When you arc as old as I am," said granny, tartly, 

 " you '11 be tired enough of gadding j however, good-bye, 

 child, I wish you well, and don't forget you owe everything 

 to me." 



" All right," said I. 



" Thank you for nothing," sneered my late merry neigh- 

 bour. " I hope 3'ou '11 remember I stood your friend when 

 no one else did." 



" Ah, well !" broke in a melancholy voice, " I alw.iys knew 

 you were bom for great things, but no one would believe me." 



" Bless me," I thought, " 1 'm rather sorry to go ; I had 

 no idea I had such good friends, nor that I was held in 

 such high estimation." 



However, I had no time for regrets. I was pulled out of 

 my soft bed, one of my legs was crumped up under my body, 

 one of my arms broken, and in this pitiable condition I was 

 rolled up, tied together, and it was dark. 



What a long time ago that was, and what a great deal I 

 have learned since then ; I often wonder how my head holds 

 it. I '11 explain to you, though, how it all came about. 



The gentle human voice tliat broke in ujion my childhood 

 so pleasantly was that of my dear friend, — " The Professor," 

 he is called. Dear heart, how much he knows ! I 've heard 

 the gardener say, many a time, that the Professor made no 

 more of the "ologies" than he did of cabbages, but turned 

 them inside out, extracting their heart as quickly as a squirrel 

 does a nut ; and tlien he has made a rule of informing me 

 about everything ever since tlie memorable d.ay on which wo 

 became friends. He has the plcasantest way of imparting 

 knowledge, too, making out as though half the information 

 had been given by me. 



The morning after I arrived at " Yatton Grove." I had 

 been put in a nice little home of my own ; not large, but 

 " genteel." The Professor came to visit me. I heard him 

 walk leisurely along ; every now and tlicn giving a welcome 

 to a friend in tlie cheerful voice that had made me his from 

 the moment I first heard it. 



When he arrived before me, he stopped. "Y'ou like 

 Yattou Grove, do you, my little maiden-hair?" he s.aid. 

 " It is a pretty place enougli ; and I '11 tell you wh.it, you '11 

 hear no lies here. Bad word — 'lies' — is it? Well," if we 

 are so particular, I '11 call 'era fibs. Will that suit you ? " 



I shook my little bells in assent. 



"No, but really," said the Pi-ofessor, "you were astonished, 

 weren't you? Why, little fern, I saw your graceful head 

 peeping out of the basket the fellow had in his hand. Bad 

 man; hate lies — fibs I mean; we'll have none here— none 

 here," said the Professor, evidently musing. 



" So you "re a real Cornish maiden-hair, are you ? — a 

 bona fide Adiantum CapiUus Veneris,— true species, and no 

 variety ? Hem ; no such thing — no such thing, little fern." 

 Then I heard a low chuckle, so full of annisemeut and so 

 contagious that I began to laugh too. 



"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the Professor. "I am descended 

 from a monkey, am I ? That 's Darwin's idea, little fern. 

 Well, well ; we 're an improving race, it seems. We must 

 not retrograde, or it miglit be a little awkward. Y^ou tliink 

 so, do you ? Well, we shall see — we shall see." 



Then the Professor moved on ; and, recovering myself, 

 I looked up to see what he really was like. 



Not tall, nor yet short ; well dressed, and not old. He had 

 no whiskers or beard, but his face was so clear, so pleasant to 

 look upon, I would not have had one inch covered for the 

 world. 



And so it was in this manner that I had my longings for 

 knowledge satisfied, and that I came at last to think that the 

 truest aim of any life was that of making others happv. I 

 did my best to copy the dear Professor iu this particular," and 



I put on my brightest looks whenever he appeared, and as 

 this was every morning, I grew at la^t, by habit, to be what 

 I loved to hear my dear master call me, his " cheery little 

 feni." 



I have said that the Professor came to see me every morn- 

 ing, and at every visit he imparted some knowledge, till at 

 length I felt that really Darwin was right, and that doubt- 

 less, before long, I should develope myself into something 

 exceedingly " new and strange." 



I am afraid I did not impart my ideas to the Professor as 

 quickly as I wished. Sometimes I longed to tell him thoughts 

 that crowded my mind, but I felt " my mission is to look 

 bright, and listen to my master." Then I longed to tell him 

 things that went on in the garden during his absence, but I 

 could not bear to destroy his kindly feelings towards every- 

 one. So when the cook, came to have a little quiet flirting, 

 spending, perhaps, just a little too uuich time about it, I 

 modestly turned my back. And when the gardener forgot to 

 water me, as he sometimes did, I did my utmost not to look 

 thirsty. But one memorable day my reticence was sorely 

 put to the test. 



The Professor was very gallant to ladies; and though a 

 bachelor, many ladies came to visit him, and to w.inder over 

 the far-famed grounds of Yatton Grove. 



It was a bright, fine morning, and the Professor had just 

 arrived on his daily tour of inspection, when the butler came 

 into the greenhouse and informed his master that Lady Jones, 

 with another young lady, had called upon him on particular 

 business. 



" I will come instantly," said the Professor, in what ap- 

 jieared to me very cheerful tones. He was leaving the green- 

 house, when he turned to me, and passing his hand caressingly 

 over my hair, said, — 



" Little maiden-hair, tell me, is her soul as fair as she herself 

 is, think you ? Yes ! Ah, little friend, how shall I tell — how 

 shall I tell ? " Then putting his face very close to mine, he 

 whispered, — ■" I love her — alas ! little fern, I love." 



Here was a pretty kettle of fish ! The Professor in love, 

 indeed ; whoever heard of such a thing ! Who did he love ? 

 Lady Jones, or the other young lady? " Time will show — 

 time will show," said I to mysclC, imitating, iu sincerest 

 flatter;-, the self-forgetting habit of my friend. 



After a while I heard a merry laugh ringing joyfully on 

 the air. Oh, how pretty it was ! not loud, yet so bright and 

 clear, so guileless, lliat in a moment I said, " Yes, yes, she is 

 fair and pure — fair and pure." Tlien the party entered the 

 greenhouse, and I thought, " How shall I know which 

 laughed ? ah, ray master, how to know !" 



'■ Jlr. Professor," said a voice that made me thrill with 

 ide.asurc, for it came from the sweetest, prettiest lips in the 

 world, and I knew the voice and the laugh were one. "Oh, 

 Mr. Professor," it said, "I do believe tliis is a real, true, Cor- 

 nish maiden-liair ; my very own little countrywoman." 



"Are you Cornish?" asked the Professor; and I heard 

 the dear voice tremble. 



" Really, Jessy," said the stouter lady of the two, with a 

 nasty short laugh which had a dash of derision and a false 

 sjjecious hilarity about it, "you must not engross the dear 

 Professor's time, he is going to explain to us the internal 

 structure " 



" Oh, not to-day. Lady Jones; please, not to-day," said my 

 master; then turning to Jessy, he said, "Wait here one mo- 

 ment. Excuse mc, my lady," and he vanished. 



" Wh.at a horrid old bore!" said my Lady Jones; "who 

 cares a fig for his stupid explanations or his rubbishy plants. 

 If he does not give me a right-down good liouquet, I "11 never 

 come flattering him up again; see if I do. Ha, ha! it 

 makes me long to laugh out loud to see how he swallows all 

 I say. I declare, Jessy, I wish he'd make love to you inste.ad 

 of to rae." With that she whisked round, and, lo ! my house 

 was a ruin, and I a cripple beneath the wreck. 



" Oh, Carry, Carry, see what you 've done, and the good 

 Professor does love his plants so much. Oh, I am so son-y !" 

 and down Jessy knelt, and without staying to take off her 

 delicate kid gloves she raised me up tenderly. 



"I think it must have been a sudden gust of wind, dear 

 Professor," said my lady, as the Professor entered the green- 

 house, bearing a raagnificent bouquet and one single separate 

 frond of — mayhap it was an aunt or a cousin. "1 am so very, 



^- 



