CHARACTERS. 
19 
him truly a Christian. Annie was a good 
girl, too, and had some excellent qualities, 
such as truthfulness and industry and great 
faithfulness in whatever she undertook to 
do. She w T as the best scholar in the family, 
—not excepting Richard, who was a year 
older,—and this, not because she was the 
brightest in capacity, hut because she had 
the most application. Her great faults were 
pride, jealousy and a certain self-will* which 
made it very difficult for her to acknowledge 
herself in the wrong. Her great friend was 
her cousin Sidney Whipple, who was as dif¬ 
ferent from herself as can be imagined, 
being very impulsive, warm-tempered, not 
very fond of study, and wholly destitute of 
that proper pride in himself, as Annie con¬ 
sidered it, which would prevent him from 
playing with all sorts of boys and asso¬ 
ciating with all sorts of people. With all 
his faults, Sidney was more of a favourite 
in the family than any of the children. 
He was, as we said, not remarkable for 
scholarship; but he liked reading, especially 
books of travels and voyages; and his great 
ambition was to go to sea with his uncle 
Harry. Richard had a grown-up brother at 
