PETREA'S NOSE!
This was, as we have often remarked, large and somewhat clumsy. Petrea had great desire to unform it, particularly for the approaching festivities.
"What have you done to your nose? What is amiss with your nose?" were the questions which assailed Petrea on all sides, as she came down to breakfast on the morning of the journey.
Half laughing and half crying, Petrea related how she had made use of some innocent machinery during the night, by which she had hoped somewhat to alter the form of this offending feature, the consequence of which had unfortunately been the fixing a fiery red saddle across it, and a considerable swelling beside.
"Don't cry, my dear girl," said her mother, bathing it with oatmeal-water, "it will only inflame your nose the more."
"Ah," burst forth poor Petrea, "anybody is really unfortunate who has such a nose as mine! What in the world can they do with it? They must go into a convent."
"It is very much better," said the mother, "to do as one of my friends did, who had a very large nose, much larger than yours, Petrea."
"Ah, what did she do?" asked Petrea, eagerly.
"She made herself so beloved, that her nose was beloved too," said her mother. "Her friends declared that they saw nothing so gladly as her nose as it came in at the door, and that without it she would have been nothing."
Petrea laughed, and looked quite cheerful. "Ah," said she, "if my nose can but be beloved, I shall be quite reconciled to it."
"You must endeavour to grow above it!" said the good, prudent mother, jestingly, but significantly.