I suppose it is almost unnecessary to say that Mrs. Morelle, in filling her letter with all these commissions and details of business, was influenced by a desire to occupy the thoughts of the children, and to give them something agreeable to think of in reading the letter, so as to divert their minds in some measure from the sad and sorrowful ideas connected with being separated from her, and being left alone. If, instead of a letter of this practical and business character, she had written them in a sentimental and pathetic vein, it would have cast a gloom over their minds which would, perhaps, not have been dissipated for several days.

66

Yes," said Florence, when she had read the letter, "we can buy all those things just as well as not."

"You shall buy the mosaic and the filagrees," said John, "and I will buy the model of Mt. Blanc and the mortar."

66

Yes," rejoined Florence. "But now about this other letter."

"It is from Mrs. Otis," said John, "and we must open it. Mother said we were to open any letter that came for her."

So Florence opened the letter, and hastily running over the lines, her countenance began to

assume a look of amazement and distress, and she exclaimed,

"Wha-at!"

"What is it ?" asked John, eagerly. "Read "What is it ?"

it to me.

So Florence read as follows:

"DEAR JENNIE :

"NAPLES, Wednesday Morning.

"I am very sorry that I shall, after all, lose the pleasure of accompanying you and the children on your return journey from Rome. I have just received letters from New York informing me of the dangerous sickness of my mother, and we have determined to set off from here by the steamer to-morrow morning, direct for Marseilles. We shall touch at Civita Vecchia, but I suppose you will not receive this letter until after we shall have passed, so that there will be no possibility of your joining us there, even if you were to give up your journey by land, and conclude to return with us by sea-which, moreover, I suppose you would not in any event be disposed to do.

"I should feel very much disappointed and troubled at losing the pleasure I had anticipated in making the return journey with you, through Florence, Turin and Geneva, were it not that

my anxiety about my mother fills my mind so completely as to absorb every other feeling. I am sure you will have a delightful journey. Give my love to the children, and believe me,

as ever,

"Your very affectionate friend,

"HENRIETTA."

As soon as Florence had finished reading this letter, John exclaimed in a tone of great distress, "Dear me ! Florence, what shall we do ?" His lip quivered, and he burst into tears. "Don't cry, Johnny," said Florence. "We shall get along."

"But how ?" asked John, looking up apparent distress and tribulation.

in great

"Why-I don't know exactly how-yet," said Florence, “but we shall get along in some way or other. Just think how much money we have got! People with plenty of money can always do very well in travelling in any country in Europe."

Still John seemed to feel greatly distressed, and went on uttering broken exclamations of despair in the midst of his sobbing and tears. The coachman heard him and looked round. He knew very well by John's agitation, and by the expression of anxiety and distress which he

perceived on Florence's countenance, that there was some trouble, and he had no doubt that the cause of it was something that the children had found in their letters. He however, could not inquire what it was, as he knew the children could not understand Italian, except, perhaps, a very few words. So he contented himself with smiling upon them, and telling them in his own language not to be so distressed, and then added, speaking to himself,

"Poor things! They have got a letter telling them that their mother is not coming home till day after to-morrow, when they expected her to-morrow, or some such juvenile calamity as that."

Little did he imagine that the calamity which he estimated so lightly was really that of being left alone five thousand miles away from home, and obliged to plan and execute for themselves a journey by land across the whole breadth of the continent of Europe, and then to traverse the Atlantic ocean, without any other guidance or protection than their own.

The bad news which the children had received of course made it impossible for them to take any pleasure in going to ride. So Florence said that they would return at once to the hotel. She accordingly gave the proper order to the coach

man. She gave it in French; but all the coachmen in Rome understand the French for to the hotel, so he immediately turned his horses in that direction.

In the meantime John went on crying and at last Florence said to him,

"Come, Johnny, this is not the time to cry and complain, now that the trouble is upon us. Now is the time to be strong and of good couragethat is for people who have got any strength and courage. If you were a lady, or a little child, and could not do any thing, then it would be all right perhaps for you to cry. But if you have got any manliness at all, now is the time to show it. The best time to cry, if we are going to cry at all, is not while the trouble is upon us, but when it is all over."

This was no doubt excellent philosophy, and although the inculcating of philosophy seldom produces much effect, in the immediate presence of the emergencies requiring it, still Florence's words seemed to calm Johnny's agitation in some degree. Indeed, what she said was not only obviously just, but it likewise touched Johnny's pride a little, and he gradually became more composed. Still his countenance wore a very gloomy and desponding expression.