the hall as you pass through in the morning," said Miss Watson; "but yesterday one of the servants shook the vessel containing it, and by that means prevented the crystals from forming rightly. I was forced to begin the whole operation again. This time I locked the door to secure its being undisturbed."

As soon as she was dressed in the morning, Lucy ran down to the hall to see whether the basket was there. And there it was, standing beside her bonnet. The wicker skeleton was no longer visible; every part of it, handle and all, being covered with crystals of alum, apparently perfectly formed. She did not, however, stay to examine exactly, or to count their sides, which is always a tedious business; but seeing a note directed to herself, tied to the handle, she tore it open immediately. It told her that this basket was hers if she liked it.

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If! to be sure I do!" said she.

Miss Watson suggested, that if Lucy

should ever attempt to make such a one, she might put into the solution of alum a little gamboge, which would give to the crystals a pretty yellow tint; or she might mix with it any other colour she preferred.

Within the basket, nicely placed, Lucy found several little paper cornucopias, filled with sugar-plums, and rose, and lemon, and barberry drops, with receipts for making each, written within the papers in which they were contained.

She was so much delighted with her cornucopias, and their sweet contents, and with the pretty crystallised alum basket, and with the good-natured maker and giver of these good things, that she could think of nothing else, during the first hour of the morning's journey.

"Now, mamma, will you taste the barberry drops? Excellent, are not they? and the lemon, better still! Oh, mamma, cannot you taste any more? here are seven other kinds."

Before breakfast it was impossible to taste all the seven, even to oblige Lucy, and in honour of Miss Watson. But Harry was an indefatigable taster. He went on without resistance, but without giving what Lucy deemed sufficient tribute of praise to each. At last, when much urged by the repetition of, "Is not it excellent, Harry?"

He confessed, that the tastes of different drops were now all so mixed in his mouth, that he could not tell one from the other. Lucy shut up her cornucopias, and reserved her plenty for time of need. "But, mamma," said she, "when all these are gone, now that I have the receipts, I can make the same whenever I please."

"It is not quite certain," her mother said, "that because you have the receipts you can make others equally good, whenever you please."

Piqued a little by this observation, and by a smile of Harry's, Lucy began to form

various schemes of trying experiments, in making rose and barberry drops, and sweetmeats, like those which she had tasted of Miss Watson's, and which every body had liked. She enumerated such numbers of things, which she intended to make, that Harry at last laughed, and said,

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My dear, you will then turn cook and confectioner quite, and forget every thing else."

Her mother observed, that it was useful to know how these things should be done; but that the propriety of making, or not making them ourselves, depends upon the circumstances in which we are placed, and on our rank of life. Those who have servants, that can make them, would act foolishly in wasting on such work their own time, which they may employ more advantangeously. Miss Watson, who perhaps had no servants, that could make these things, did wisely and kindly, in making them herself for her friends who like

them; and it was particularly obliging and amiable of her to condescend to do so, because she has other pursuits, and a cultivated understanding. Lucy's mother told her, that if she persevered in her wish to learn how these things were made, she should, at the proper season of the year, see and assist the housekeeper in making sweetmeats. This satisfied her. And she was at leisure to listen to Harry, who, for his part, was anxious to become a chemist, and who had been struck with the idea of the happiness of the person, who possessed a laboratory, and could try chemical experiments. His father told

him, that it was not necessary to have a laboratory and a great apparatus for this purpose, as one of the most ingenious and successful of chemists and philosophers has observed. Many most useful and excellent experiments can be tried in an easy and simple manner.

Here his father was interrupted by an exclamation from Lucy, at the sight of a