rude, cross boy your brother is!"

"I did not know he was going to jump out. I am not crying because I am
hurt, but because of this great rent in my nice new frock. Mamma will be so
displeased."

"Is it a new frock?" asked Erminia.

"It is a new one for me. Nancy has sat up several nights to make it. Oh!
what shall I do?"

Erminia's little heart was softened by such excessive poverty. A best frock
made of shabby old silk! She put her arms round Maggie's neck, and said:

"Come with me; we will go to my aunt's dressing-room, and Dawson will give
me some silk, and I'll help you to mend it."

"That's a kind little Minnie," said Frank. Ned had turned sulkily away. I
do not think the boys were ever cordial again that day; for, as Frank said
to his mother, "Ned might have said he was sorry; but he is a regular
tyrant to that little brown mouse of a sister of his."

Erminia and Maggie went, with their arms round each other's necks, to Mrs.
Buxton's dressing-room. The misfortune had made them friends. Mrs.
Buxton lay on the sofa; so fair and white and colorless, in her muslin
dressing-gown, that when Maggie first saw the lady lying with her eyes
shut, her heart gave a start, for she thought she was dead. But she opened
her large languid eyes, and called them to her, and listened to their story
with interest.