mustn’t expect everybody to pet and caress her just as her father did, who
was an old fool anyway, and petted her and her dogs alternately." This
kind of reasoning did not convince Fanny, and for many days her face wore
a sad, troubled expression.

Thus the winter passed away. Spring came, and with it came an offer to Mr.
Wilmot of a very lucrative situation as teacher in a school in Frankfort.
At first he hesitated about accepting it, for there was, in the old rough
stone house, an attraction far greater than the mere consideration of
dollars and cents. Julia at, last settled the matter, by requesting him to
accept the offer, and then urge her father to let her go to Frankfort to
school also.

"And why do you wish to go there, Julia?" said Mr. Wilmot, laying his hand
on her dark, glossy hair.

"Because," she answered, "it will be so lonely here when you are gone."

"And why will it be lonely, dearest Julia?" continued he.

"Oh," said she, looking up very innocently in his face, "you are the only
person who understands me; by all others, whatever I do or say is
construed into something bad. I wish you were my brother, for then I might
have been better than I am."

"Oh, I do not wish I was your brother," said Mr. Wilmot, "for then I could
never have claimed a dearer title, which I hope now to do at some future
time."

Then followed a declaration of love, which Julia had long waited most