KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



285 



carried home her half-crown on the right day ; 

 but still a new idea that had come into her head 

 of not only being able to purchase her own sash, 

 but to help out Margaret with money enough to 

 buy one too, set aside any scruples she might feel 

 about the means by which she had gained her 

 end. 



To Margaret she therefore announced that, if she 

 were willing to give up her savings, sashes could 

 be bought for both ; Aunt Thornton having given 

 h»r the birthday half-crown before the time. 



Margaret thought this a most lucky circumstance, 

 and it never occurred to her to suspect that Fanny 

 had asJced for her present. In her mother's mind, 

 however, Fanny's lucky present certainly excited 

 sofne suspicion; but she forebore to question her 

 about it, as she preferred waiting until her own 

 feelings should lead her to acknowledge this, it 

 must be confessed, rather mean action. Nothing 

 now remained for Fanny to do in order to attain 

 her wishes, but the purchase of the sashes ; and 

 this she luckily resolved to postpone until the very 

 last moment — not being able quite to make up her 

 mind as to whether the ribbon should be pink or 

 blue. 



All Fanny's projects, and the joyous antici- 



Eations of the whole party, received a sad check, 

 owever, when, on the day before that on which 

 the party was to take place, the news arrived, that 

 their cousins in town had the hooping-cough 

 amongst them, and that their visit must be given 

 up ! 



Loud and long were the lamentations. 



" It will be no party, after all," said Fanny in 

 despair. " With so few of us, we could not even 

 have a dance." And the tears came into her 

 eyes. 



"Well, suppose," said her mother, "we quite 

 give up the idea, Fanny, of your party being in 

 any respects like that of your friends, the Camp- 

 bells', but take a lesson from the parable your 

 father read this morning, in which, when the 

 guests made excuses, and could not come to the 

 feast, the siver of it invited instead, the poor, the 

 lame, and the blind." 



" But, mamma, we know no blind nor lame 

 people," said Herbert, wondering what his mother 

 meant. 



" Xo, but the poor. I have been wishing all 

 the summer to ask the children of the school in 

 the village to come and walk in our garden, and 

 have a play on our lawn. What do you say to 

 our having them here to-morrow ? And, instead 

 of vexing ourselves, and fretting over the im- 

 possibility of having a gay party like the Camp- 

 bells', suppose we think only of how we can give 

 pleasure to those poor children, to whom our 

 entertainment will be sure to be a pleasure and 

 a treat." 



Not all at once, but gradually, the idea of this 

 entered the children's minds in the light which 

 their mother wished. Fanny was alittle harassed 

 at the thought of what the " Campbells would 

 think of it ; " but when her mother proposed her 

 sitting down to write a little note to Alice, to 

 explain how they had been disappointed by their 

 cousins not being able to come, and how her 

 mamma thought their preparations might give 

 pleasure to the children of the National School, 

 and asking Alice and her brother and sister to 



come early in the afternoon, to help in preparing 

 for their reception — a great weight was taken off 

 Fanny's mind. Now, it would no longer be 

 necessary to imitate the Campbells ; for all would 

 be quite different, and better (she began to feel) 

 than any party could be. 



The children's liking to the scheme was in- 

 creased still more strongly by perceiving the 

 interest taken in it by their father and mother. 

 The latter went herself to give the invitation to 

 the master and mistress of the school ; and Mr. 

 Amyott begged that the entertainment of the 

 party, after it was too dark for anything else, 

 should be left to him. It was found that as 

 many as thirty children could accept the invita- 

 tion, and no one would admit a doubt of their 

 being able to accommodate so large a party. As 

 the weather, although they were in the middle of 

 September, was unusually fine and warm, it was 

 settled that they might plan for tea being taken 

 in the garden, so that room could be found for 

 all, in addition to the pleasantness of the arrange- 

 ment. 



The spirits of the Amyotts rose high on the 

 receipt of an answer from the Campbells to 

 Fanny's note, entering warmly into their plans, 

 and offering all kinds of assistance and loans, 

 from cups and saucers to their large microscope, 

 which, with Malcolm's care and management, 

 might, they thought, afford some amusement to 

 the children. What a beautiful idea ! It sug- 

 gested the plan of appropriating the summer- 

 house as a sort of museum for the occasion, and 

 they determined to clear it out, and arrange in it 

 all their curiosities for the children to look at. 

 Herbert was to have the charge of the museum; 

 he was to show and explain. Never had the 

 summer-house, amid all its transformations, been 

 turned to such good account. 



As the idea of the pleasure they were about to 

 give to their poor neighbors became more and 

 more present to their minds, the zeal and earnest- 

 ness of the children increased. Petty and paltry 

 feelings about rivalling or imitating the Camp 

 bells passed out of Fanny's mind, and gave way 

 to better ones. Even the wearing of a sash, on 

 which she had fancied her pleasure would so much 

 depend, became quite a matter of indifference to 

 her ; indeed, it seemed as if it would, on the 

 whole, be better not to wear anything of the kind, 

 now that the greater number of their visitors 

 would be so humbly dressed. 



As I have exposed my little friend Fanny's 

 weakness in this matter of the sash, I feel that I 

 ought to mention that her good sense brought her 

 to this decision, quite without any suggestion from 

 any wise grown-up person. She determined that 

 she would not purchase any sash at all ; and what 

 would she not now give that she had never thought 

 of getting from Aunt Thornton her birthday half- 

 crown ! Now that her desire for what it was to 

 purchase was gone, how disagreeable seemed to 

 her, her late expedient for obtaining the money. 

 The more she dwelt on the thought, the more 

 painful it became ; and when she found on the 

 morning of their " party," that her mother was 

 about to send a message to her aunt, she eagerly 

 begged to be allowed to accompany the servant; 

 and, with the half-crown tightly squeezed up in 

 her hand, she went, and, in a private interview 



