“‘And after that, would the desk give me most pleasure?’ asked Harriet.
“‘Yes,’ said her mother,—‘because your time for playing with dolls has nearly gone by. You will feel less and less interest in them now every year,—and the interest will soon be gone entirely. But your interest in writing and in other intellectual pleasures, will increase every year. So that I would recommend to you to buy the desk. If you were three years old instead of twelve, perhaps I should recommend to you to buy the doll; but for you to buy it now, would be like a man’s buying a trunk at the end of his journey.’”
“Well,” said Lucy, “and what did Harriet do?”
“O, she bought the desk, and she liked it better and better every year. She used to write notes, and a journal upon it; and she kept the notes which the other girls wrote to her, and her journal books, and her drawings, and her pencils, and all her treasures, in it. Thus she bought something that she was growing up to.”
Lucy determined to follow Miss Anne’s advice; but she had not time to hear any more, for very soon after this they reached the town.
CHAPTER V.
THE GYPSY PARTY.
One Wednesday evening, in summer, Royal and Lucy were sitting on the front door steps, eating bread and milk, which their mother had given them for supper, when they saw a boy coming along the road, with a little letter in his hand.
“There comes a boy with a letter,” said Royal. “I wonder whether he is going to bring it here for my father.”
The boy walked along, and, when he reached the front gate, he opened it, came up, and handed the note to Royal. “There’s a letter for you.” Then he turned round, and went away again.