chair to the side of the table. "Did you find the spout?" asked Miss Fortune. "Yes, ma'am." "Well, how do you like it?" "Oh, I like it very much indeed," said Ellen. "I think it is beautiful." Miss Fortune's face rather softened at this, and she gave Ellen an abundant supply of all that was on the table. Her journey, the bracing air, and her cool morning wash, all together, had made Ellen very sharp, and she did justice to the breakfast. She thought never was coffee so good as this country coffee; nor anything so excellent as the brown bread and butter, both as sweet as bread and butter could be; neither was any cookery so entirely satisfactory as Miss Fortune's fried pork and potatoes. Yet her teaspoon was not silver; her knife could not boast of being either sharp or bright; and her fork was certainly made for anything else in the world but comfort and convenience, being of only two prongs, and those so far apart that Ellen had no small difficulty to carry the potato safely from her plate to her mouth. It mattered nothing; she was now looking on the bright side of things, and all this only made her breakfast taste the sweeter. Ellen rose from the table when she had finished, and stood a few minutes thoughtfully by the fire. "Aunt Fortune," she said at length timidly, "if you've no objection, I should like to go and take a good look all about." "Oh yes," said Miss Fortune, "go where you like; I'll give you a week to do what you please with yourself." "Thank you, ma'am," said Ellen, as she ran off for her bonnet; "a week's a long time. I suppose," thought she, "I shall go to school at the end of that."