quently caught cold by sitting on the damp grass, or
from exposure to the evening dew, or some insidious
draught, which seemed to have no injurious effect on
them. It was quite right that they should be hardy,
yet surely they might have been taught some considera-
tion for others who were less so. But I must not blame
them for what was, perhaps, my own fault; for I never
made any particular objections to sitting where they
pleased, foolishly choosing to risk the consequences
rather than trouble them for my convenience. Their
indecorous manner of doing their lessons was quite as
remarkable as the caprice displayed in their choice of
time and place. While receiving my instructions, or
repeating what they had learned, they would lounge
upon the sofa, lie on the rug, stretch, yawn, talk to each
other, or look out of the window; whereas I could not
so much as stir the fire, or pick up the handkerchief I
had dropped, without being rebuked for inattention by
one of my pupils, or told that "mamma would not like
me to be so careless."

The servants, seeing in what little estimation the gover-
ness was held by both parents and children, regulated
their behaviour by the same standard. I have fre-
quently stood up for them, at the risk of some injury
to myself, against the tyranny and injustice of their
young masters and mistresses, and I always endeavoured
to give them as little trouble as possible; but they en-
tirely neglected my comfort, despised my requests, and
slighted my directions. All servants, I am convinced,
would not have done so; but domestics in general,
being ignorant and little accustomed to reason and
reflection, are too easily corrupted by the carelessness
and bad example of those above them; and these, I
think, were not of the best order to begin with.

I sometimes felt myself degraded by the life I led,
and ashamed of submitting to so many indignities; and
sometimes I thought myself a fool for caring so much
about them, and feared I must be sadly wanting in
Christian humility, or that charity which "suffereth long

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