and jerked Elsie's head suddenly backward, which was not at all
comfortable. Worse,--Elsie having dropped into a doze, she herself
tumbled to the floor, rolling from the glassy, smooth chintz as if
it had been a slope of ice. This adventure made her so nervous that
she dared not go to sleep again, though Johnnie fetched two chairs,
and placed them beside the sofa to hold her on. So she followed Mrs.
Worretts advice, and "amused herself with a book." There were not
many books in the best room. The one Elsie chose was a fat black
volume called "The Complete Works of Mrs. Hannah More." Part of it
was prose, and part was poetry. Elsie began with a chapter called
"Hints on the Formation of the Character of a Youthful Princess."
But there were a great many long words in it; so she turned to a
story named "Coelebs in Search of a Wife." It was about a young
gentleman who wanted to get married, but who didn't feel sure that
there were any young ladies nice enough for him; so he went about
making visits, first to one and then to another; and, when he had
stayed a few days at a house, he would always say, "No, she won't
do," and then he would go away. At last, he found a young lady who
seemed the very person, who visited the poor, and got up early in
the morning, and always wore white, and never forgot to wind up her
watch or do her duty; and Elsie almost thought that now the difficult
young gentleman must be satisfied, and say, "This is the very thing."
When, lo! her attention wandered a little, and the next thing she
knew she was rolling off the lounge for the second time, in company
with Mrs. Hannah More. They landed in the chairs, and Johnnie ran
and picked them both up. Altogether, lying on the best parlor sofa
was not very restful; and as the day went on, and the sun beating on
the blindless windows made the room hotter, Elsie grew continually
more and more feverish and homesick and disconsolate.