The foster-sisters

by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

WINTER.

WE soon began to feel quite at home at Highbeck Hall, and knew all the nooks and corners about the old place, which were accessible to us. We were not a little curious about the shut up rooms, but of course we asked no questions, though I for one associated them with the beautiful lady in the saloon, and determined to get the story out of old Elsie some day.

We prescribed to ourselves a regular routine of study, practise, and work, beginning of course with about twice as much as we could do, and coming by degrees down to a more reasonable plan, to which we adhered as well as people generally do in such circumstances.

We read in our history which we had begun with Mrs. Cropsey, but at last abandoned it, for my Lord Clarendon's history of the Rebellion, at the request of Mrs. Deborah; who was determined to make us into as thorough Jacobites as she was herself. Even as Lord Clarendon tells the story, I must say, I did not acquire as greet an admiration for poor King Charles as I could have wished. He seemed to me to be tyrannical and timid both at once, and I could not forgive his abandonment of Lord Strafford, and the way in which he deceived his friends. But it may easily be guessed, that I no more hinted anything of this kind to Aunt Deborah, than I should have dared to suggest to Mother Prudentia a doubt of St. Agnes' prudence, in running away to St. Francis in the middle of the night. *

* Which she did at the age of fourteen, and afterward persuaded her Sister Clare, aged twelve, to do the same.—L. E. G.

We practised our music for two hours daily, during which time Aunt Chloe usually sat with us. We learned to ride on horseback, and to take long walks when the weather permitted, attended usually by one or other of the bloodhounds to keep off stray cattle or intrusive gypsies. We visited the poor people, and carried broth and medicines to the sick, and spent a good deal of time in gossiping with the old men and women in the alm-houses, and in reading to them. Only one or two of them could read, but all liked to be read to, and took pleasure also in telling their stories like other old people. We also made great friends with old Elsie, and heard many stories from her of the past glories of the Grahames, and their exploits on the border. In short, we were as much at home in Highbeck Hall in two weeks, as though we had lived there all our lives.

We had visitors from time to time, from among the gentry in the neighborhood. These visits usually lasted from two to four days, and were desperately dull, to my thinking. However, Aunt Chloe enjoyed them, and they brightened her up amazingly. We used to be called upon to play and sing for the edification of the visitors, and always received great commendation.

When there were young people of our own age, they were of course turned over to us for entertainment, and very much puzzled we were at first to know what to do with them, not being used to the company of girls of our own age. But we usually found we could amuse them by tales of our convent life, especially with the story of the robbery, which was always received with breathless interest. Then it was a time when fancy-work of all sorts was greatly in vogue. Ladies used to do cut-work, and lace-work, chenille-embroidery, and satin-stitch, and cross-stitch, and dozens of other stitches, and various kinds of knotting. *

* What is now called tatting. See Mrs. Delaney's memoirs.

Thanks to Mother Prudentia, we were proficient in all these pursuits, and what we did not know, our visitors did. Miss Jenny Thicknesse, I remember, was very enthusiastic over the shell-work, and cardboard work in imitation of stucco, with which she and her sister were adorning the gothic arches of an old chapel in her father's house. They were nice homely ladylike girls, and we were great friends with them.