Miss Patten's School 



regarded as a kind lady attached to a 

 Paradise of strawberry beds, became 

 suddenly transformed into a terrible being, 

 a schoolmistress in whose grasp I was left 

 a helpless victim, a person who would 

 pretend to take my Mother's place, who 

 would wash and dress me, and make me 

 do sums. I cried, in spite of all her efforts 

 to pacify me, until dinner-time, and then 

 could not eat Jor sheer misery. If I had a 

 favourite dish at that period it was goose- 

 berry pudding ; there was one for dinner 

 that day ; but when I tried with my tears 

 running into my plate to eat a little piece, 

 it tasted quite different, and I wondered 

 how I had ever liked it. I noticed, too, 

 that the spoons and forks were dull and 

 smeary, and entirely lacked the brightness 

 that made our simple table at home so 

 pleasant — the table in which my Mother 

 took such pride. My heart swelled again 

 on observing this, and my bitter tears 

 welled up afresh at the memory of the 

 home that seemed so cruelly, irretrievably 

 lost to me. 



Through all that choking meal, and the 

 long afternoon, and in the evening when 

 I went to bed. Miss Patten was very kind 

 to me ; but I found no comfort. When- 

 ever she observed my trembling lips, or 

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