“Go away, you wild girl,” said her father, smiling. “Rose is the most industrious of you all, for she is dressed before any of you.”
“Rose is housekeeper, and had to be up, papa; don’t inflate her with praise she does not deserve. I have been up an hour.”
“An hour! and what were you doing, Miss?”
“Je flanais—there’s French for you, in good earnest; and I heard the first bird that sang this morning,” answered Minnie, with a gay laugh. “I was making reflections of the most profound nature when you disturbed me—and thus the world has lost a lesson.”
“And I have been reading La Bruyère before my dressing glass,” said Blanche, complacently, as soon as the mirth that followed Minnie’s speech had subsided.
“Well, I have been at work already,” added Lisa, as she drew herself up. Lisa was the tall one, and had the air of a princess.
“Oh, Lisa! you remind one of the old lady who sat in her rocking chair and did nothing,
‘From morning till night,
But darn, darn, darn;’”
and Kate’s merry black eyes danced about from one to the other. “Now, I have been writing verses.”