Ruth Arnold / or, the Country Cousin

ellers in the country. The scent of sweet new hay was borne on the afternoon breeze, and the broad sunlight lay on fie

, opened a little gate and walked up the garden path; and then, instead of running indoors as usual,

through the half-year that the prize would be hers unless she was very idle or lazy. Nor did she anticipate much pleasure in readi

since she was six years old; and now she had turned fourteen, and began to feel some contempt for the elementary catechisms which had been her only lesson-books, and which were certainly not calculated to make learning attractive

er says that I must not leave school until I am fifteen. I wonder what books they use in large boarding-schools, and if they ever get beyond Mangnall's Questions in the

ome, Ruth. How long have you been

few mi

e? And why did you

tle credit in getting a prize at Miss Green's, where one makes so

over again, every day and every year. But now," she added smiling, "as everyone is busy in the hay-field, an

t on a large blue pinafore; "I'll

self, who petted and talked to her like an old friend. The afternoon was very warm, but still and sweet and quiet, with the summer hush upo

"mother says that it is the same thing over and over again all our live

milked. I go back to the meadow and bathe in the stream or eat as much grass as I want; in the afternoon I lie under the shade of the trees and chew the cud; and in the evening I come again to

d: "Yes, it is breakfast, dinner, tea and supper every day, and mother has to see to it all; and the children to be washed and dressed and nurs

looking boys aged respectively seventeen and twelve. It was evident from a single glance that they were Ruth's brother

ot for you, Ruth!" cri

brought a new plant for my garden? No! Has Annie Price sent the pattern she promised for my wool-wo

ng good or bad, I may as well give it to you at once. It's from a

ng. What a pretty hand! ever so much better than mine; and here is the post-mark-B

ook of mingled wonder, surprise, and delight spread over her face. They waited as long as their

understand the idea of such a piece of good fortune coming in her way. "But there," she added with a sigh, as she refolded the letter and put it into her pocket

suggested; but this was not an easy matter, as her father and mother were already sitting at the tea-tabl