these traits of character but by giving them an opportunity to be exercised; and she thought it would be much better for the children to make mistakes in cases of little importance, and while she herself was at hand to correct or remedy them, than to wait for them to acquire their experience when the serious cases and responsibilities of life should rest upon them, and when their mistakes would be of so much greater moment, and might sometimes be irreparable.

"I have concluded to go to the Isle of Wight," said Mrs. Morelle, when the time arrived for her to give her decision, "on condition that Florence will make all the arrangements, and take the whole party there, without my having any care or trouble about it."

"Oh, mother," said Florence, "I could not do that."

"Then we can't go, I suppose," said Mrs. Morelle quietly.

"Let Grimkie do it, mother," said Florence; "he can do it just as well as not, but I never could do it in the world."

"But Grimkie will be under your orders, and so you will have his services at your command, and whatever he can do you can do through him. You can have John at your command, too. You will be queen, as it were, and they

will be your ministers. You can tell them what you wish to have done, and they will do it."

"But sometimes," said Florence, "I shall not know what ought to be done."

"Then you can ask them to advise you," replied Mrs. Morelle. "Queens often have to depend very much upon their ministers for ad-vice, in respect to what they are to do-a great deal more frequently, in fact, as I am told, than they act on their own knowledge. Their ministers collect information for them, and give them advice, as well as execute their commands.

"In this way you can have Grimkie and John at your disposal, but you must direct and decide every thing at last."

"But I should not know what part of the Isle of Wight to go to," said Florence. "It is a very large island. It is fifteen or twenty miles long, I suppose."

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Well," said Mrs. Morelle, "if some parts are more pleasant or more curious than others, and you can't find out where these parts are, then we shall have to be content with going to the least interesting parts. That will be our nisfortune in not having a capable queen.'

“Oh, we can find out that easily enough,” said Grimkie. "We can study the map and the guide-book."

"We have got a guide-book," said Florence. "I bought one yesterday at the station."

"Then that is all we want," said Grimkie.

"It is on the table near the window," said Mrs. Morelle. "I give it up to the queen's disposal."

Florence went to the window and took the guide-book, and she concluded to offer no further objection to being made the queen of the expedition.

CHAPTER III.

FLORENCE A QUEEN.

MRS. MORELLE requested the children to conduct their consultations and form their plans, as much as possible, out of her hearing, in order that she might have her time uninterrupted for her visitors and reading. All she required, she said, was to have a few hours' notice of the time when they were to set out, so that her girl Josephine might have time to pack the trunks.

It may seem strange that Mrs. Morelle should be willing really and truly to leave the planning of such a journey to children so young. And, in fact, I suppose there are many parents, who, if they pretended to do so, would not actually trust the arrangements to the children, but would contrive, while they appeared to leave the decision to them, really to manage and direct every thing themselves. And this, in some cases, might perhaps be the wisest course. But Mrs. Morelle's way was always, when she said she would leave any thing to the children, to do

ner.

it really and truly, in the most complete manShe knew very well that there could be no great harm or danger in submitting herself to their disposal in such a case as this, for, in the first place, Grimkie, who was to be Florence's prime minister in her queenly office, had had a good deal of practice and experience in travelling, and he was not likely to make any very serious mistakes; and then, moreover, there were no mistakes that he could well make that would be likely to lead to any serious consequences. It was only the missing of a train, perhaps, or getting into a wrong train, or making choice of an undesirable hotel, or something of that sort, and any inconvenience which she might suffer from accidents of this kind she was very willing to disregard, for the sake of the great advantage the children would derive from having sometimes a real and serious responsibility thrown upon them.

As soon as Florence had received her commission-if it is proper to speak of a queen holding her office under a commission-she decided to go down and hold her first consultation with her counsellors upon the beach, or rather upon one of the seats which were placed there, along the shore, for the convenience of visitors.

"Come, Grimkie," said she, "we'll go down