LUCY.--From what you say of your being "saucy" to your stepmother, and that you are slapped "whenever you tell lies," and that you think you "ought to do as you choose," we see that you have been a spoilt child, and deserve some sort of correction. You are evidently well and suitably fed. We greatly disapprove of tight-lacing. If you were good, obedient, and respectful, you might then venture to say when the maid laced you in. It is to be regretted that so young a girl should wear any at all. A BUNCH OF VIOLETS might undertake bookkeeping, or, if she know any thing of millinery, she might get a little extra work from that. Her pay in the shop is very small. Everyone should be paid enough to live upon, and 8s. a week is not enough to live and dress upon.