"Is he a nice man?" asked Ladybird, drumming on the table with both hands, and on the floor with both feet. "Do stop that fearful noise, Lavinia. Yes, he is a fine, capable governor, and a true gentleman. Why?" "Are you studying your history lesson, dear?" asked Aunt Dorinda. "Is it about the governor?" "I'm studying my history lesson, but it isn't about the governor," answered Ladybird, truthfully. "I only asked because I wanted to know." "That is right, Lavinia," said Miss Priscilla, approvingly. "It is wise to inquire often concerning such matters of general information; by such means one may acquire much valuable knowledge." "Yes, 'm," said Ladybird. "Where is his office?" "Whose, the governor's? Oh, in the State House, I suppose, though he would doubtless have a private office at home." "Yes, 'm," said Ladybird. That same afternoon Ladybird collected some apples and cookies, and with a pad of paper and a pencil in her hand, and Cloppy hanging over her arm, she remarked that she was going down to the orchard, and went. "You see, Cloppy," she said as they walked along, "we've just got to help Stella,--my pretty Stella; she has no one to help her but you and me. She's a damsel in distress, and we're a brave knight. Of course we can't fight for her with spears and lancets; but we can do better than that. The pen is mightier than the sword, and, Cloppy, I've got the very elegantest scheme. I'm going to write to the governor--the governor of the State, you know. He can do anything, and if I write him a nice letter, I'm sure he'll send a duke, or a belted earl, or something that's nicer than Charley Hayes, anyway. But oh, Cloppy-dog, how I do hate to write a letter! I can't write very good, and I can't spell very good, and I'm scared to death of the governor. You know he's an awful big man, Cloppy, a great man, with a white wig and a cocked hat; but I'm going to do it, and I won't tell my aunties, because I'm 'most sure they wouldn't let me. But I must do something to rescue my beautiful Stella from dire dismay." Ladybird climbed one of her favorite apple-trees, settled Cloppy comfortably in her lap, and placing her paper pad on him as on a desk, prepared to write. A puckered brow was for a long time the only outward and visible sign of her inward and spiritual resolve to help her friend. "Oh," she said at last, "it is harder even than I thought it would be; but I'll do it for my Stella." "Of course," she thought, "'Dear Mr. Governor' must be the way to begin it, because there isn't any other way." After writing the three words, she paused again, trying to remember what her language lessons had taught her. "I only remember one rule," she said to herself, talking aloud, as she was in the habit of doing, "and that is: 'Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.' But goodness me! if I can't begin a sentence, it doesn't make much difference what I use to end it with; does it, Clops?"