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mamma what is the matter with

would you like to have?"

you. What

"Aunt Catherine," said Clara; " she promised to take me to Heaven."

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"Do, my dear Catherine," said Mrs Lennox, try and find out what is the matter with her."

"I rather think," Catherine replied, "that there is a slight degree of fever in her pulse; but," she added, on observing that Mrs Lennox's endless questions only fretted the child, "if you will go down stairs, I shall be her sick nurse till we hear what the

doctor says."

"What!" said Mrs Lennox, not pleased at this proposal, " am I not more interested in my own child than you can be ?"

"I have not the smallest doubt of that," replied Catherine; "but Clara seems inclined to sleep, and, at all events, she should be kept very quiet."

"You had better go," said Charles, who saw that Catherine wished her absence, "and leave Clara to Catherine's care."

""Tis very hard, I think," muttered Mrs Lennox, as she quitted the apartment, “to be turned away from the sick bed of my own child. What should she know about managing children? I have a good mind to go back again."

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Clara," said Catherine," do you know I am to dine with you ?"

"Oh, how nice!" said Clara, recovering the use of her speech. "Susan!" she exclaimed, addressing her maid, “ aunt is going to dine with me in my own nursery."

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While Catherine was still sitting by the bed-side of the little invalid, the doctor was announced, who, on hearing the symptoms, soon discovered that her indisposition arose from something which pressed on her mind. He made particular inquiries if she had any companions, and if she were naturally of a cheerful disposition.

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Very cheerful, sir," said Susan." She used to be full of play, till within these few days; but now she does nothing but mope, and sit on her little bed with all

those play-things beside her. She cares for no one but Miss Dundas; and her mamma whipped her the other day for saying she loved her better than her."

"Come, my little girl," said the doctor, "and tell me who gave you all these pretty play-things."

"Aunt Catherine," she replied.

"And see, Miss Clara," said Susan, "here is the wax doll your mamma gave you."

"I don't want it," said Clara; "I hate it 'tis an ugly thing." And she pushed it from her.

"I hope," said Catherine," there is nothing materially wrong with my little friend here ?"

"With care and attention," he replied, "I think we shall soon restore her to her usual health; but her constitution is by no means robust, and I find she has strong feelings, which have been checked, and thrown back upon her. She must be treated with great tenderness. I would recom

mend her being amused, and kept a good deal in the open air. If a companion of her own age could be procured, it would be all in her favour. Would you like a little girl to play with you?" asked the doctor.

“No,” said Clara, " I want no little girl, only aunt Catherine; she promised to play with me after dinner."

"You see, doctor," said Catherine, smiling, "that I mean to return to my youthful sports again."

"You could not do better," he replied, as he went to have a conference with Mrs Lennox.

The doctor, who was a man of some penetration, soon saw how matters stood; and spoke so seriously of the absolute necessity for allowing Clara, in the meantime, to follow the bent of her own inclinations, that Mrs Lennox, alarmed for the health of her child, and conscious that this illness was in part her own work, readily acquiesced in all he said, and promised to follow his directions. He then took his leave, saying

he would see his little patient in the course of the following morning.

The event justified the doctor's predictions. Clara, allowed to do as she liked, and no longer punished for her attachment to Catherine, whose constant shadow she had now become, soon regained her vivacity; and as Mrs Lennox had not yet recovered from the fright she had received, she allowed them to enjoy the society of each other without any further molestation. How long this condescension continued, is yet to be seen; but Clara, with all the thoughtlessness of her age, enjoyed the present hour, without troubling herself as to the evils the future might contain.

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