"She will turn out quite as good a seamstress as Celia," said she to the Doctor. "She sews steadily all the time, and nothing seems to please her so much as to finish a piece of work. She will be able to do much more than her own sewing, and may prove quite a help to us." "I shall be very glad," said the Doctor, "if anything can be a help, to prevent you and Celia from working yourselves to death. I shall be glad if you can ever have done with that eternal sewing. It is time that Celia should do something about cultivating her mind." "Celia's mind is so well regulated," interrupted Mrs. Lester. "We won't discuss that," continued the Doctor,--"we never come to an agreement there. I was going on to say that I am becoming so interested in Isabella, that I feel towards her as if she were my own. If she is of help to the family, that is very well,--it is the best thing for her to be able to make herself of use. But I don't care to make any profit to ourselves out of her help. Somehow I begin to think of her as belonging to us. Certainly she belongs to nobody else. Let us treat her as our own child. We have but one, yet God has given us means enough to care for many more. I confess I should find it hard to give Isabella up to any one else. I like to find her when I come home,--it is pleasant to look at her." "And I, too, love her," said Mrs. Lester. "I like to see her as she sits quietly at her work." So Isabella went on learning what it was to be one of the family, and becoming, as Mrs. Lester remarked, a very experienced seamstress. She seldom said anything as she sat at her work, but seemed quite occupied with her sewing; while Mrs. Lester and Celia kept up a stream of conversation, seldom addressing Isabella, as, indeed, they had few topics in common. One day, Celia and Isabella were sitting together. "Have you always sewed?" asked Isabella. "Oh, yes," answered Celia,--"since I was quite a child." "And do you remember when you were a child?" asked Isabella, laying down her work. "Oh, yes, indeed," said Celia; "I used to make all my doll's dresses myself." "Your doll's dresses!" repeated Isabella. "Oh, yes," replied Celia,--"I was not ashamed to play with dolls in that way." "I should like to see some dolls," said Isabella. "I will show you my large doll," said Celia; "I have always kept it, because I fitted it out with such a nice set of clothes. And I keep it for children to play with." She brought her doll, and Isabella handled it and looked at it with curiosity. "So you dressed this, and played with it," said Isabella, inquiringly, "and moved it about as one would move a piece at chess?" Celia started at this word "chess." It was one of the forbidden words. But Isabella went on:-- "Suppose this doll should suddenly have begun to speak, to move, and walk round, would not you have liked it?" "Oh, no!" exclaimed Celia. "What! a wooden thing speak and move! It would have frightened me very much."