Her beauty owed nothing to her toilet--her only decoration was the

coronet of her own rich black hair; her only hair pin was a thorn; her

dress indeed was a masterpiece of domestic manufacture,--the cotton from

which it was made having been carded, spun, woven, and dyed by Miss

Hannah's own busy hands; but as it was only a coarse blue fabric, after

all, it would not be considered highly ornamental; it was new and clean,

however, and Nora was well pleased with it, as with playful impatience

she repeated her question: "Say! aint you proud of me now?"

"No," replied the elder sister, with assumed gravity; "I am proud of

your dress because it is my own handiwork, and it does me credit; but as

for you--"

"I am Nature's handiwork, and I do her credit!" interrupted Nora, with

gay self-assertion.

"I am quite ashamed of you, you are so vain!" continued Hannah,

completing her sentence.

"Oh, vain, am I? Very well, then, another time I will keep my vanity to

myself. It is quite as easy to conceal as to confess, you know; though

it may not be quite as good for the soul," exclaimed Nora, with merry

perversity, as she danced off in search of her bonnet.

She had not far to look; for the one poor room contained all of the

sisters' earthly goods. And they were easily summed up--a bed in one

corner, a loom in another, a spinning-wheel in the third, and a

corner-cupboard in the fourth; a chest of drawers sat against the wall

between the bed and the loom, and a pine table against the opposite wall

between the spinning-wheel and the cupboard; four wooden chairs sat just

wherever they could be crowded. There was no carpet on the floor, no

paper on the walls. There was but one door and one window to the hut,

and they were in front. Opposite them at the back of the room was a wide

fire-place, with a rude mantle shelf above it, adorned with old brass

candlesticks as bright as gold. Poor as this hut was, the most

fastidious fine lady need not have feared to sit down within it, it was

so purely clean.

The sisters were soon ready, and after closing up their wee hut as

cautiously as if it contained the wealth of India, they set forth, in

their blue cotton gowns and white cotton bonnets, to attend the grand

birthday festival of the young heir of Brudenell Hall.

Around them spread out a fine, rolling, well-wooded country; behind them

stood their own little hut upon the top of its bare hill; below them lay

a deep, thickly-wooded valley, beyond which rose another hill, crowned

with an elegant mansion of white free-stone. That was Brudenell Hall.




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