* * * * * There was a bright girl on board, named Agnes,--the daughter of a Boston gentleman, who was going abroad for a year. She was a social miss; witty, yet polite; speaking to every one freely, without being intrusive. On the evening of the sixth day, nearly all the passengers were in the saloon. Agnes was asked to sing. She winningly said,-- "I will do my best, if agreeable to all." She asked to be excused a moment, and presently returned with a broad-rimmed hat and a basket, and wandering carelessly up and down the saloon sang "The Beggar Girl." "Over the mountain, and over the moor, Hungry and barefoot I wander forlorn. My father is dead and my mother is poor, And she grieves for the days that will never return. Pity, kind gentlefolk, Friends of humanity, Keen blows the blast and night's coming on; O give me some food For my mother, for charity; Give me food for my mother, and I will be gone." Agnes presented her basket to one and another of the passengers, as if to solicit contributions as the song went on. All were pleased with the diversion, and it was proposed to have some other amusements during the evening. Agnes arranged some impromptu charades: one on _Ingratiate_ (in grey she ate); another on _Cowhiding_ (cow hiding, in which she personated a milk-maid calling "Co boss, co boss!" and afterwards the same maid cowhiding a boy for hiding her cow). Agnes selected Tommy Toby to assist her in this last amusing tableau. Agnes next appeared as a mind-reader. Before this last rôle, however, she was observed having a confidential chat with Tommy Toby. "Now," said she, "if any of you are interested in clairvoyance, I shall be pleased to give an exhibition of the science. You may not know I am a mind-reader." "She probably has been reading Master Toby's mind already," said her father, smilingly looking over his paper. "Oh, father!" "If each of you will write a word on a slip of paper, I will have the slips collected and put on my forehead; and I will take them from my forehead one by one, but before I take each one down, I will tell what is written upon it." All wrote some word. "Will some one collect the slips?" she asked. "I will," said her father. "I think as Thomas Toby is _spry_, I shall have to ask him to do me the favor." "How I wish I were _spry_!" said her father. The slips were collected. Tommy put them all on her forehead. She put up her fingers and held them there, and Tommy took a seat with his friends. Agnes seemed in reverie. Then she said emphatically,-- "On the first slip is written 'Boston!' Who wrote that?" "I," said Tommy Toby. "Then it is correct?" "Yes." She took the slip from her forehead and laid it in her lap, saying as she did so,-- "It is not written very plainly, either."