Year: 1868

inattention. He. sisters all fancied her
to be vastly superior to themselves,
since she was as beautiful as fairy,
never got into disgrace, said her lessons
without ever a failure, and wrote her
copies with never blot. Withal she


had caresses and gay words for every


body, and was always in good humor
! Thus the childhood of the six sisters
passed away amid the sorrows and the
joys, the tears and the smiles that are
inseperable from that period Of life.
At sixteen more charming little group
could be found nowhere. Masters at
tended them no longer, petty childish
follies were outgrown; they loved each
other dearly, and were seldom separat-
ed. BY degrees, in spite Of the efforts
of the Queen to make them all alike,
each fell into the place designed for
her by Nature Moins sat ali day with
her scissors or her needle in her hand.
and fashioned her own dresses and
those of her; sisters. She could not
find time to read, she said, nor to
practice, and wondered how others
could. She made herself and the other
Princesses look as if their garments
grew upon their youthful figures; once
having worn one Of her dresses, they
quarreled with their seamstressea, COM
planned of being pinched here and
pulled there, and kept her completely
busy and completely happy. The Queen
no longer resisted the tide; she had q
spacious apartment fitted up for the
use of the Princesses, and sat among
them, watching them with admiration
and delight. In her corner, Moina sat
at her work, saying little, but hearing
all that went on, aud accomplishing q
great deal. Reima had her easel hot
far off; no one was allowed to touch
her portion of the sanctuary, and her
skillful hand produced in exquisite col
ors the creations Of her brain. Mosella
and Papets sang and played and COM
posed, and made the lofty apartment
resound with wondrous harmony. No
yella, in remote corner, sat at her
desk and wrote. Sometimes, as her
pen flew over her paper, she laughed
aloud, and sometimes she cried; then
when the mood was oyer and the in.
spiration fed, her sisters liked 10 rouse
her tagging spirits by making her read
aloud to them the tales and verses she
had written. While she read, Moina
worked patiently and eheerfuly in her
corner, and Reima painted in hers,
while Mosella and Papeta copied music
in theirs. As for Delicieuse, she want
ed no corner of her own, but was any
and everywhere as her mood led her.
Sometimes she watched Moina while
she fashioned the dresses destined for
her own graceful figure, beguiIing the
time with lively chat; at others she
hoVered near Reims, admiriDg the skill
and the enthusiasm with which she
pursued her art She was welcomed
by all, for as she had DO decided taste
of her own, she had no hobbies to
thrust in peoples way, nor was she
ever so busy that she was not glad at
any moment to listen to Novella when
she read, or to Papets when she sang,
Her facile nature made her drop what
ever she had in hand, TO seize what
ever the world Ghrew at and asked her
to catch.


But the King complained that the
Queen kept his charming daughters all
to herself He had pretty nearly for
gotten that they were not his own child
rem; and sometimes, when a little of
his guard, was known to boast that De-
licieuse had inherited her beauty and
her extraordinary power to please, from
his mother,th illustrious Queen Ariana.
Reima's love of art was also derived
from one of his ancestors, as were the
musical powers of MoseIla and Papeta.
As to Molina, that good and useful
creature, he was sure he should have
had some relative precisely like her,
had not royal etiquette forbidden the
display of such homely talents. The
Queen found these little delusions Of
his somewhat amusing, but on the
whole they gave her pleasure, as show
ing that the King was proud and fond
of their adopted children. To CRAFTY
him she had them introduced at court,
where, arrayed in the graceful folds of
Moina's disposing, and the charms Of
simple, unspoiled girlhood, they were
received almost with acclamations. The
Countess Reynosa's sagacity in the
choice Of six such rare maidens was the
admiration Of every one: people said
there never was little head so full Of
wit as hers Iei3t


After dazzling evening spent inthe
most brilliant society, the sisters went
to bed, tired and more or less out of
sorts. Moins was the first to awake
next morning. She rose at once, and,
after time, took her work and sat
down with it in her usual place. Many
costly and beautiful fabrics lay scatter
ed about her, from which she was to
fashion new robes for the second ap-
pearauce of herself and sisters at court.
The scissors moved in her skillful hands
as by magic; she seemed to cut and
slash at random, while she really used
them with precision. Presently she
took her pretty golden thimble from
her basket, and would have placed it
on her finger but that some substance
entirely filed it.


How tiresomep abe said, and with
the point of her scissors she picked at
the obstruction a little impatiently.
Molina was not an angel. She was onyl
kind-hearted littlework- She
recoiled in some alarm when, at the
touch of the scissors, there flew from
the thimble what she at first supposed
to be horrible winged insect. Il
lighted on the edge of the table, and
looked at her out of two large, greenish
eyes. She saw now that it was DO in
sect, but a diminutiye, fearfully ugly
little creature in human shape: its
wings suggested the idea Of cherub,
its face that of demon.


"Poor childI" it began, in voice
as fine and as sharp as number-twelye
needle; here you sit, stitch, stitch,
stitch, while your sisters preserve their
beauty by lying in bed. How exquisite
your work is! How industrious and
patient you arel 1t is strange that the
world oyerlooks such merit as yours"


Il