From the time I was two years old, (said Miss Lucy) my mamma was
so sickly, that she was unable to take any great care of me
herself, and I was left to the care of a governess, who made it
her study to bring me to do what she had a mind to have done,
without troubling her head what induced me so to do. And whenever
I did anything wrong, she used to say it was the foot-boy, and not
miss, that was naughty. Nay, she would say, it was the dog, or
the cat, or anything she could lay the blame upon, sooner than own
it was me. I thought this pure, that I was never in fault; and
soon got into a way of telling any lies, and of laying my own
faults on others, since I found I should be believed. I remember
once, when I had broken a fine china-cup, that I artfully got out
of the scrape, and hid the broken cup in the foot-boy's room. He
was whipped for breaking it; and the next day whilst I was at play
about the room, I heard my governess say to a friend who was with
her, "Yesterday Miss Lucy broke a china-cup; but the artful little
hussy went and hid it in the foot-boy's room, and the poor boy was
whipped for it. I don't believe there was ever a girl of her age
that had half her cunning and contrivance." I knew by her tone of
voice, and her manner of speaking, that she did not blame me in
her heart, but rather commended my ingenuity. And I thought
myself so wise, that I could thus get off the blame from myself,
that I every day improved in new inventions to save myself, and
have others punished in my place.

'This life of endeavouring to deceive I led till I came to school.
But here I found that I could not so well carry on my little
schemes; for I was found out and punished for my own faults; and
this created in me a hatred to my companions. For whatever Miss I