"Everything," said Beth. "Don't you know the stuff that dreams are made of? Pickles, pork, and plum-cake." "Dreams is sent for our guidance," Harriet answered portentously, shaking her head at Beth's flippancy. "Well, I'm glad of it," said Beth, "for I dreamt I was catching Uncle James's trout in a most unsportsmanlike way, and I guess the dream was sent to show me how to do it. When I have that kind of dream, I notice it nearly always comes true. But where's the 'Dream Book'?" "'Ook it," said Harriet. "'Ere's your ma." As the other little bodies had their breakfasts in bed, Beth had to face her lessons alone that morning, and Mrs. Caldwell was not in an amiable mood; but she was absent as well as irritable, so Beth did some old work over again, and as she knew it thoroughly, she got on well until the music began. Beth had a great talent as well as a great love for music. When they were at Fairholm, Aunt Grace Mary gave her Uncle James's "Instruction Book for Beginners" one wet day to keep her quiet, and she learnt her notes in the afternoon, and began at once to apply them practically on the piano. She soon knew all the early exercises and little tunes, and was only too eager to do more; but her mother hated the music-lesson more than any of the others, and was so harsh that Beth became nervous, and only ventured on the simplest things for fear of the consequences. When her mother went out, however, she tried what she liked, and, if she had heard the piece before, she could generally make something satisfactory to herself out of it. One day Aunt Victoria found her sitting on the music-stool, solemnly pulling at her fingers, one after the other, as though to stretch them. "What _are_ you doing, child?" she said. "O Aunt Victoria," Beth answered in a despairing way, "here's such a _lovely_ thing, and my head will play it, only my fingers are not long enough." Mildred had brought a quantity of new music home with her these holidays. She promised to play well also, and her aunt was having her properly taught. Beth listened to her enraptured when she first arrived, and then, to Mildred's surprise and admiration, tried the pieces herself, and in a few weeks knew all that it had taken Mildred six months to learn. That morning, as ill-luck would have it, when she was waiting at the piano for her mother to come and give her her lesson, Beth began to try a piece with a passage in it that she could not play. "Do show me how to do this," she said when Mrs. Caldwell came. "Oh, you can't do that," Mrs. Caldwell exclaimed. "It is far too difficult for you." "But I do so want to learn it," Beth ventured. "Oh, very well," her mother answered. "But I warn you!" Beth began, and got on pretty well till she came to the passage she did not understand, and there she stumbled. "What are you doing?" Mrs. Caldwell exclaimed. Beth tried again nervously. "That's not right," her mother cried. "What does that sign mean? Now, what is it? Just think!"