Magnum Bonum

in hi

ulled ou

"What a goo

Hor

dispersed, while Dr. and Mrs. Lucas came for a week, giving much relief to Mrs. Brownlow, who could discuss the family affairs with them in a manner she deemed unbecoming with Mrs. Acton or Miss Ogilvie. Had Caroline heard the consultation, she would have ac

s of first anniversaries, and their first excitements of so

s Janet's inordinate correspondence with Nita Ray, and the discovery t

g me!" she exc

" said Janet, so carelessly, tha

f an invitation being given and

odern daughter; "don't be cross! We re

impossible, as I say now. You can

m doing no good here

We will set to work

sses and my

our reading together will teac

ky and scornful, and

books, and I think I know how to re

tting behindhand

oundation. Besides, even if it were more desirable, the

by helping Miss Ra

d Carey, laughing. "Does

at I can do," said

on of going to London out of your head. I am sure Miss Ray di

tered something about Miss Ray

has never been able to keep her sister in order; and as to trusting you to their care, or

ne Highness turns up her nose at

, who went muttering away; and no more was ever heard of the Ray proposal, which n

e made Janet understand that she was not to be disregarded or disobeyed. Regular hours were instituted, and the difficulty of getting broken into them again was sufficient proof to her that she had done wrong in neglecting them. Armine yawned portentously, and declared that he could not learn except at his own times; and Babie was absolutely naught

wed a certain contempt for her teacher in the studies she resumed with her mother; but after the dictionary, encyclopaedia and other authorities, including Mr. Ogilvi

alf-holidays, declaring that it would be quite a refreshment. Caroline was shocked at the sacrifice, but she could not bear to affront her daughter, so

r the sake of Bobus and Jock, but also for Janet's and her mother's. The difficulty was to beat up for ladies enough to keep one another in countenance; but happily two families i

meant. Throughout her married life, her only stewardship had concerned her own dress and the children's; Mrs. Brownlow

t had gone on in their hands at the Pagoda. Janet was pleased to be respected accordingly by her aunt, who always li

illings and fourpence halfpenny, and what was nearly as bad, the discovery was made in the presence of her fellow executor, who could not help giving a low whistle. She turned pale, and gasped for breath, in absolute amazement,

at the good-natured Colonel pi

were inexperienced. You wi

nothing to

r the London house, and the di

as ever! How can we live

and you had better consult her o

kind to manifest surprise or elation at the fulfilment of her forebodings. To be convicted of want of economy would have been so dreadful and disgraceful, that she deeply felt for poor Caroline, and dealt with her

. Glas of

.......

e Belforest farm agent's? To these, and many other small matters, Caroline was quite relieved to plead guilty, and to promise to do her best by personal supervision; and Ellen set herself to devise further ways of reduction, not

ed for-and she ought to have saved enough to do without-it would

wn that she viewed nurse as a sacred char

quietl

t she must be allowed no more d

o that myself,

ravagan

ault. I will try

ular h

end with t

only kept to wait on nurse, but who, Caroline said

ith the girls' help; I am happy to say that Jessie is an excellent needlewoman, and Essie and

r not to trust peo

at she would soon be cured

who knows how, should mend the clothes, than that I should bo

ar

d I can teach. Was I

r income that you want, but proper attention to d

ying "Yes," without knowing what she was assenting to; and while Ellen was discoursing on coals and coke, she was trying to decide which of her casts she could bear to offer for sale, and going off into the dear old associations co

almost rushed into the room the next day, just as she was locking up her

s with mine! You know that is what I really can do. Yes, indeed, I would be regular. I always was. You know I was, Robert, till I ca

as she paused for breath, "no one ques

d offer to prepare little boys. I've been more used to them than to girls, and I know Mr. Ogilvie would be glad. I could hav

said Ellen. "You need no increase in

hat I can-than what I

ow to superintend her own house

pper servant, and I know I should make no hand of it, and I had much rather earn something by my wits. I can do it

of the well-born woman, not to be the bread-winner, but the preserver and steward, of the household.

peace, looked up and said, with the gracio

h to exert yourself, and very kind and proper to desire to be

ng it a dismissal, tried at once to obviate all ungraciousness by saying,

oline, hearing nothing but

give you an excellent one. I will come

brother? Was it to be treated as a domestic nostrum?

ilosopher," said the Co

fered Caroline a basket of magnum bonums for preserving, an

d or scolded, instead of gravely leading her past the red-baize door which shut out the lower regions to the room where white armies of jam-pots stood marshalled, and in

anners. The gardener was to be sent with them, and Ellen herself wou

ine went home to the lessons, and Ellen repaired to her h

great allowances to be made for her

s is nearly at the head of the school, and Johnny has

about with that museum nonsense. The boys did not do half so much mischief, nor destroy so many clothes, before they were a

s no rea

uld-if she only knew how to

e, enough to meet the weekly bills, till her rent comes in, so that she may no

ll ever keep to it steadily; but it can hardly hurt the children to try, if Jessie has an eye on Essie and Ellie. I will not have them brought on too fast, nor taug

recipe for the preservation of magnum bonums, and a very liberal cheque in advance for the first quarter of her three pupils, stipulating that no ot

s which she was working with Janet, forgot everything else, till a sort of gigantic buzz was heard near at hand. A sudden thought struck her, and out she darted into the hall. There stood the basket in the middle of the table, just where the

anet came rushing out in dismay at the so

ed Bobus, the first to get

are your aunt's precious plums, which she gave us as a great favour, and

s stone swelling out his cheek, where it was tucked for conven

ted Robin; "they

om of the orchard, where they are just as big and

taste li

ste a magnum bonum, before it is all t

ousin paused for a comparison. "It's a wasting of good gifts to

omptly retorted Armine, "for I saw

I know the tree! They are just like long apricots. Au

can't have it done. To steal your a

that tree," said Johnny, "because

he preserves!"

well to hinder Mother C

ch it!' It was all my fault fo

en lips that he opened wide enough the next

t in the boys' way, she will ar

magnum bonum?" asked Jane

ngly; and adding, as Janet coloured up to the eyes, "

o good an opportunity had come, all was choked back by the str

any reply; and Caroline, who had for a moment thought she understood, was baffled, and durst not pursue the subject for

and Janet ran away, feeling that she ha

onour. Nay, Johnny actually spent the next half-holiday in walking three miles and back to his old nurse, whom he beguiled out of a basket of plums-hard, little blue things, as unlike magnum bonum

had started with at her marriage. Caroline felt that she neither could nor would have made herself such a slave to domestic details; yet this was life and duty and interest to Ellen. Where one sister would be unheeding of shabby externals, so that all her children might be free and on an equality, if they did not go beyond her, in all enjoyments

ghed to herself, that made all the difference! an

opitious, for, in her new teacher's eyes, Jessie knew nothing accurately, but needed to have her foun

do when I was no bigger than Essie, and yet she is always teasin

wants to help her just at present, and after this autumn w

ime over old easy things ma

, poor thing, she can't teach you more than she knows herself; and

said Jessie. "She makes their sums into a story,

t be all right, and that the progress, which they undoubtedly made, must be by some superficial trick; but as their father ha

dical habits; nor was she, in spite of her precocious intelligence, too forwa

of the scale; but as Jessie was by no means aggressive, being in fact as sweet and docile a shallow girl as ever lived, things wen

eful cat; and when he came in from school, and found his cousin in wild despair over the conversion of 2,861 florins into half-crowns, he stood by, telling her every operation, a

for now I must rub it out and do it again, and

said Bobus; "I wou

is sister; "how is she to

doesn't?"

s a di

bus. "She is much nicer as s

er sisterly air. "It is not kind to encourage Jessi

a girl's business is to be pretty and good-humoured, not to stuff he

all your envy and jea

though with a certain cloud of perplexity on her white op

Aunt Caroline; but Bobus helpe

w, my dear," said her aunt; "then

er than ever, and then was claimed by Bobus to help him in the mak

ssed with her own concerns to be helpful, while Jessie's pretty dexterous hands were always at everyone's service, and without in the least entering into the c

ed still more so, as being still in their kittenhood, and their atti

n her husband so much pleasure, and, but for Allen, the studio would never have been arranged. But no sooner was her time engrossed, than the ar

s poems. She had been taught anatomy enough to make her work superior to that of most women, and Mr. Acton found no diffi

be brought up to be worthy of the quest, high-minded, disinterested, and devoted, as well as intellectual and religious. So s

man, of a wornout type, a careful visitor of the sick and poor, but taking little heed to the educated, except as subs

h phrases as "let us not, beloved brethren, as gaudy insects, flutter out life's little day, bound to the chariot wheels of vanity, whirling in the vortex of dissipation, until at length we lie moaning over the bit

great lady of the place, and wearing an almost abject manner when receiving good counsels from her. Neither of them commanded re