horses should not be put to yet, not for two hours. What can be the reason of that, Harry?"

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We are to walk through some park, near this town, I believe," said Harry, "and the carriage is to meet us at the farthest gate, and we are to see some house. Come! Come, Lucy! Papa is calling to us to follow him."

Lucy followed with great alacrity, certain that they were now going to be surprised. But they walked up an avenue of beech trees, and reached the house without meeting with anything surprising; and Lucy was disappointed, when she found that her father and mother came to this house only to look at some pictures. Neither Harry nor Lucy had yet any taste for pictures, and their mother therefore advised them to divert themselves by running about the pleasure grounds, which amusement they were permitted to enjoy, upon her answering for them, that they would not touch any of the flowers or shrubs. First they went through all the flower-gardens, then through the park, and by the river side, and up again through a wood on the banks, till the red light of sun-set, which they saw on the stems of the trees, warned them to return from whence they came. They were afraid of being too late, and of keeping their father and mother waiting; but luckily they met the wood-ranger going home from his work, and he showed them a path, which took them the

shortest way to the house.

Instead of being too

late, they found that they need not have run so fast, for their father and mother had not yet finished looking at the pictures.

"Let us sit down then, and cool ourselves quietly," said Lucy. "Harry, only think of papa, and mamma having been all this long time, looking at pictures! How tired I should have been, if I had been standing all this while, with my neck bent back, staring up at them. Harry, do you think that, when we grow up, and set out upon our travels, we shall ever be so fond of pictures as to stand looking at them so long?"

Perhaps we may," said Harry, "though we do not care about them now. I remember some time ago, I never thought of looking at prints, except of machines; but ever since the day I saw the prints in Don Quixote, I have grown fond of them."

"Yes; and how happy we were together," said Lucy, "looking over the prints in Pyne's Microcosm."

"True, I forgot them," said Harry. "I always liked those, because they are so like things and people we see every day."

"And the prints in the Arabian tales," said Lucy, "though they are not like things we see every day, or any day, or that we can ever see in reality, you like those, do not you, Harry?"

"I do,” said Harry, "some of them."

"Some of them," repeated Lucy. “Very right, so do I. Those that are like my ideas of what the sultans, and viziers, and Fatimas, and their turbans, and Coge Hassans might be. But some others I do not like, such as Aladdin's genius of the lamp, and the African magician, because they do not come up to my imagination of them. Harry, do describe to me your image of the African magician."

It was a difficult task, and Harry was glad to be relieved from it, by his father's calling to him, to desire he would see if the carriage was come to the park-gate. It was there waiting, and as they got into it, the sun was just setting, and by the time that they reached the end of the next stage, and had drank tea, it was quite dark. They were, however, to go on another stage this night. Lucy, who did not much like travelling in the dark, observed, as her mother was getting into the carriage, that the coach lamps were not lighted.

"Never mind, my dear," said her father, “we shall have light enough soon."

"Soon! Oh no, papa, begging your pardon," cried Lucy," there will be no moonlight these two hours. I can show you when the moon will rise, by my new pocket-book, papa."

"Very likely, my dear," said her father; "but,

Lucy, do not stand talking on the step of the carriage."

At the moment when her father was giving her this advice, one of the horses was startled by a light, and, giving a sudden jerk to the carriage, Lucy was thrown from the step backward, and must have fallen under the wheel, but that her father caught her in his arms, and set her upright again. Into the carriage she went directly, and while yet trembling with the fright, her father repeated his advice.

"While you live, child, never again stand in that manner on the step of a carriage, without holding by something. I assure you, that you put yourself into much greater danger at that moment than any you are likely to meet with from the darkness of this night.”

Lucy hoped that her father did not think that she was a coward, and after some minutes' silent submission, she expressed this hope, and began to defend her character for courage, by reminding Harry of all the instances she could recollect of her never having been afraid in a carriage. Harry said nothing. "I cannot see your face, Harry. I hope you are agreeing with me."

No, I am laughing; for I think you are a little afraid at this minute. I feel you squeezing close to me, because we are going down the hill."

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Think, and talk, then, of something else," said her mother; "and do not tell Lucy she is a coward, or you will make her one. Lucy, my dear, there is no danger; but if there were ever so much, you cannot alter it."

"No, mamma; only I quite so fast," said Lucy.

him?"

wish he would not go "Would you speak to

"No, I cannot teach the postilion to drive; can you, Lucy?"

"No, indeed, mamma," said Lucy, laughing, or trying to laugh.

"Then we had better let him follow his own business, which he understands, and which we do not."

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‹ Very well, mamma; I know you are right, and that there is no danger now. We are down the hill, I feel, and it is all over nicely. But, mamma, suppose there was danger, and that the horses were really what is called running away, what would you do?"

"Sit still. The only thing which would not increase my danger," answered her mother.

"Could not you get out, mamma?" said Lucy.

I could, perhaps, but I would not attempt it; because I know it is the most hazardous thing that could be done," said her mother.

"Yes," said Lucy's father, "I believe that more lives have been lost, and more limbs broken, by