The San Francisco call., 1895-12-15
From the London Queen. ]

! domination even then-so unshakable
her belief in her own superior wisdom,
and her right to rule hy virtue of that
superiority. It was she. indeed, who kept
the nursery in an uproar; for all that she
! threw the blame on every one but herself.
1t was Sissy who did this, and Sissy who
did that; and Sissy who Slapped Nan, and
Sissy who punched Will; and Sissy who
would not let Janey alone, and Sissy who
made baby cry. But Mrs. Uppermost put
it all the other way, and the Prosecuted
Innocent was petted favorite compared
with her own account of herself and her
tribulations.
AS time passed the characteristic of the
nursery became the scourge of the school
room. Older than her young sisters, she
had naturally the advantage SO far and the
start given by her seniority she utilized
with an unsparing hand. Things which
she had learned only last week she as
sumed that her sisters should know to-
day, and many were the sarcysms and re-
proachful jibes she heaped on the head of
the pretty little Thumbling who did not
know what she, the elder, had only just
learned. Then she would assume her pro-
fessional air and edit the lesson book for
| the benefit of the Ounce. But as she was
once overheard impressing on Thumbling
the fact that horse hairs thrown into a
river grown into leeches and water-snakes,
her lessons in natural history, at all events,
were not OF the finest quality, and the
place they occupied in the brains of little
Curly-pate might have been more advan.
tageously filled. But it would have been
of the nature of mild miracle had Mrs.
Uppermost been convicted Of folly. What
she imagined she knew she was very sure
was gospel truth, and that she had made
some mistake was out of the region of pos
sibilitv.
,,+o I'LL
and from this passing into the young
lady of the Introduced. Mrs. Uppermost
became a slender thorn in her mothers s
side which not all her maternal love could
bear without both wincing and displeas-
ure Critical, fault-fnding, managing
absolute, she wrought at all four corners
for occasions whereby to display her su-
periority, and at every turn of the road
made frantic snatches at the Teins. 1t
was one perpetual contest between her and
her mother. Who should be mistress and
whose will should prevail was tie theme
on which they fought; and the battle be-
came more important and the fight more
arduous as the girls character consolidated
and her will became more clearly self
conscious. For very peace sake the mother
was fain at times to give in and let her
headstrong daughter become manageress
on this and that occasion. AT others she
had to be firm, and protect the Younger
sister who else would not have been
allowed to call her soul her own.
AS it was Mrs. Uppermost held it
as a kind of freehold of which she
merely let the tenant right during her
will and pleasure, and woe betide the poor
little maiden when the self-elected pro-
prietress chose to exercise her rights. AS
both girls had been taught German, with
which the mother was unacquainted, be-
fore her very face Mrs. Uppermost would
gird at her young sister, calling her un-
seemly names in unirtelligible gutturals,
which Thumbling was too much in awe of
her autocratic tormentor to translate for
the benefit of mother and her rebukes. If
by chance tears came into her eyes she
made haste to conceal them, knowing that
things would he made hotter still for her
than even they were now should mother
see and Mrs. Uppermost must be scolded.
But Thumbling had hard time of it, all
things considered, and even her governess
could not wholly protect her.
AS IA young lady introduced to the world
of balls and partners, of picnics and
amusements, Mrs. Uppermost made her
authority felt among her friends. She
managed everything and coerced every
one; and where she could not control she
quarreled. The timid submitted to her,
but the high-spirited rebelled; and fac
ton fights were frequent in her own par
tIcular set. For here again, as with her
own younger brothers and sisters, she was
the proprietor of all the souls that grew
about her path, and those who would not
pay her tribute got INTO rough water.
During this period of her existence moth
ing annoyed her so much as any show of