BY JULIA A. FLETCHER.


_Sophronia_. Come, girls, let us go and have our fortunes told.

_Eveline_. Oh! I should like it of all things; where shall we go?

_Sarah_. Let us go to old Kate Merrill's. They say she can read the
future as we do the past, by hand, tea-cups, or cards. Come, Mary Ann.

_Mary Ann_. Excuse me, girls, if I do not go with you. I do not think it
is right to have our fortunes told.

_Sophronia_. Not right? why not?

_Mary Ann_. Because, if it had been best for us to know the future, I
think God would have revealed it to us.

_Sarah_. Oh, but you know this is only for amusement.

_Eveline_. Of course, we shall not believe a word she says.

_Mary Ann_. If it is only for amusement, I think we can find others far
more rational and innocent. But depend upon it, girls, you would not
wish to go, if there were not in your minds a little of credulous
feeling?

_Sophronia_. Well, I am sure I am not credulous.