THE SNOW-STORM.! Moorbank, Cumberland, DEAR LIZZIE,--I thank you much for your kind letter. We thought the snow-storm was about as bad here as it could be, but it seems to have been worse in London. We were all much amused with your funny description of it. And yet there were some things in your description more shocking than funny. What a dreadful walk that was you had on the Tuesday night from the party home! Not to be able to get a 'bus, or tram, or conveyance of any sort, and to have to walk through a blinding snow for three long miles in London streets, -well, when we read your account of this we were all quite shocked. The snow-fall hereabout has been heavy, but things have gone on in their usual way. On the very day you had that long and wearisome trudge, I also was out at a party. There was deep snow on the ground, and the air was awfully sharp, but I got well muffled with fur tippet and muff, and could set the cold at defiance. We were out at farmer Thompson's, and there was a large gathering of young folks. I wish you had been with us, for we enjoyed ourselves very much. After a number of games, we broke up about ten o'clock, and got home right. all With kind love to all, I am, Your affectionate friend, ELLEN CRAWFLOWER. To Miss ELIZA PINK, 1560, Camden Road, London, N. THE DAUGHTER OF A KING. "I WISH I were a princess ! " Emma stood with the dust-brush in her hand, pausing on her way upstairs to her own pretty little white room, which she was required to put in order every day. ́ "Why, my child?" asked her mother. “Because then I would never have to sweep, and dust, and make beds, but would have plenty of servants to do these things for me," "That is a very foolish wish," her mother replied; "and even you were a princess, I think you would find it best to learn how to do all these things, so that you could do them in case of necessity." "It never is necessary for princesses to work." "There my little girl proves her ignorance. If she will come to me after her work is done, I will show her a picture." The little bedroom was at length put to rights, and Emma came to her mother, reminding her of her promise about the picture. "What do you see, my child?" her mother asked, as she laid the picture before her daughter. "I see a young girl with her dress fastened up, an apron on, and a broom in her hand." 1 66 Can you tell me what kind of a place she is in ?" "I do not know. There are walls and arches of stone, and a bare stone floor. I do not think it can be a pleasant place." "No, it is not. It is a prison, and the young girl is a king's daughter." "A king's daughter!" "Yes; and her story is a very sad one. "Please tell me about her." "More than eighty years ago the King of France was Louis XVI. and his wife was Marie Antoinette. They were not a wicked king and queen, but they were thoughtless and fond of pleasure. They forgot that it was their duty to look after the good of their people, so they spent money extravagantly in their own pleasures while the whole nation was suffering. The people became dissatisfied; and when finally Louis and Marie Antoinette saw the mistake they had been making and tried to change their conduct, it was too late, The people, urged on by bad leaders, learned to hate their king and queen. They were taken with their two children and the sister of the king and shut up in a prison called the Temple. "There were dreadful times in France then, and every one who was suspected of being friendly to the royal family was sent to prison and to the guillotine. The prisoners in the Temple passed the time as best they could. The king gave lessons to his son and daughter every day, or read to them all while Marie Antoinette, Madame Elizabeth, and the young Maria Theresa sewed. "After a time the angry people took away the king and beheaded him. And shortly after the little son was separated from his mother, sister, and aunt, and shut up by himself in the charge of a cruel jailer. Next it was Marie Antoinette's turn to ascend the scaffold, which she did in 1793. Her daughter Maria Theresa was then left alone with her aunt, the Madame Elizabeth. "But it was not long she was allowed even this companionship. Madame Elizabeth was taken away and beheaded, and then the poor young girl of sixteen was left entirely by herself in a dismal prison, guarded and waited on by brutal soldiers. For a year and a half she lived thus, leading the most wretched existence, and not knowing whether her mother and aunt were alive or dead. “Years afterward, when she was free, she wrote a book about her life in prison. In that we read: 'I only asked for the simple necessities of life, and these they often harshly refused me. I was, however, enabled to keep myself clean. I had at least soap and water, and I swept out my room every day.' "So here in the picture you see a king's daughter, and the granddaughter of an empress―Maria Theresa of Austria, one of the most remarkable women in history-after having carefully made her toilette, sweeping the bare stone floor of her cell. “Which, in those days, do you think caused her the most satisfaction, the remembrance that she was the daughter of a king, or the knowledge of domestic duties, acquired, no doubt, while she was a happy, envied princess, living in a palace and surrounded by servants?" "Is that a true story, mamma?" "Yes, Emma, every word of it; and there is much, much more that I cannot tell you now." "What became of her at last?" "She was finally released from prison, and sent to Austria to her mother's friends; but it was a full year after she reached Vienna before she smiled, and though she lived to be more than seventy years old, she never forgot the terrible sufferings of her prison life. "But, my child, what I wished to teach you is, that though it is sometimes very pleasant to be a princess, it may be most unfortunate at other times. Yet there are no circumstances in life, either high or low, in which a woman will find the knowledge of domestic duties to come amiss, and in which she will not be far happier and more useful for possessing that knowledge." Little children do not always comprehend everything at once; so I will not say that from that time forth Emma took delight in dusting and sweeping. But, my little readers, bear in mind that that woman is the most queenly-not the one who is the most ignorant and the most burdensome to others, but the one who is wisest in small things as well as great-who uses her wisdom and her strength for the benefit of those around her, shrinking from no duty that she should perform but doing it cheerfully and well. TO-MORROW. "I WILL plough my field to-morrow," said Jeannot; "I must not lose any time, as the season is advancing; and if I neglect to cultivate my field I shall have no wheat, and as a consequence no bread." To-morrow arrived. Jeannot was up by daylight, and was about going out to get his plough when one of his friends came to invite him to a family festival. Jeannot hesitated at first; but on reflecting a little he said, "A day sooner or later makes no difference for my business, while a day of pleasure once lost is always lost." He went to the festival of his friend. The next day he was obliged to rest himself because he had eaten a little too much, and drank a little too much, and had a headache, "To-morrow I will make up for this," said he to himself. To-morrow came; it rained. Jeannot, to his great grief, was unable to get out all day. The following day it was fine, and Jeannot felt himself full of courage; but unfortunately his horse was sick in his turn. Jeannot cursed the poor beast. The following day was a holiday, and he could not, of course, work. A new week had commenced, and in a new week a great deal of work may be done. He began by going to a fair in the neighbourhood; he had never failed to attend it; it was the finest fair held within ten miles. Не went afterwards to a christening of a child of one of his nearest relations: and afterwards to a burial; in short he had so many things to occupy him that when he began to plough his field, the season of sowing was past; thus he had nothing to reap. When you have anything to do, do it at once; for if you are master of the present, you are not so of the future, and he who always puts |