"She did, but I had rather not mention it," said Beulah, almost weeping. That word "vulgar" applied to her dear parents; how could any one be so cruel! Yet she did not understand it.

"This is very strange, child," said Mrs Morris. "You must not look so sorrowful. Mrs. Whately has been waiting for you a long time, to show her your beloved flowers."

"Come, Beulah," said Mrs. Whately, "the sun will soon rob your favorites of their freshness;" and, taking Beulah by the hand, they went out together.

"I am going to ask you a question, Mrs. Whately," said Beulah, after they had been some time in the garden. "And yet I do not know that it would be quite right."

"Ask any question that you please of me," kindly replied Mrs. Whately.

Thus encouraged, Beulah commenced, "Zephina's mother will not allow her to come to our house because she thinks we are vulgar; will you please to tell me what that ugly word means?

Mrs. Whately hesitated a moment, and her young companion whispered, "Is it because our family drink spirits? I saw you did not approve of that, and I have thought for some time that it was not right."

"That practice is, in these days, considered vulgar by many, and I hope your family will soon give it up," was the reply.

"I will try to persuade them to do it," quickly replied the amiable girl.

Mrs. Whately did not think it right to let the matter pass thus, and added, "There are many ways in which the word is used, but incorrectly; nothing is really vulgar excepting what is mean, improper, or wicked. Some mistaken persons apply it to those who do not live in an elegant and stylish manner. Zephina's mother probably used it in this sense. You have felt, my dear

Beulah, that there is a glory and a beauty in the works of creation, that many things are not alone useful, that this world, with its glorious sky, and its green hills and valleys, its woods and its beautiful flowers, was not made thus, merely for a place to eat, drink, work, and sleep in, but that the beings for whom it was made so excellent might admire and enjoy it, and lift up grateful hearts to the beneficent Creator; and, as in the natural world there is this beauty, so in human character, in the heart itself, there may be such goodness and such refinement as to give a bloom and beauty to the actions."

Although Beulah Morris did not perfectly understand Mrs. Whately, yet there was something in her very soul that responded to the sentiments of her new friend. She was silent and thoughtful for a while, then her large, soft eyes looked earnestly in Mrs. Whately's face as she said; "The kindness of my father and mother is beautiful to me."

2*

CHAPTER III.

ZEPHINA'S MAMMA.

Ar a rattling old piano sat the disconsolate Zephina, laboring over a piece of music. Her mother's patience, never very remarkable, was now quite exhausted.

"You are the most stupid girl in the world, Zephina," she exclaimed ; " you will never be fit for fashionable society."

"From all I know of fashionable society, stupidity would fit me better for it than any thing else," pettishly replied Zephina.

"This all comes from your being so much of late with those Homespuns in that horrid red house. Did you tell them I could not permit you to come there again ? inquired her mother.

"I did," replied Zephina. "I had a nice breakfast first, and then how mean, how cruel, it

was to tell Beulah that I could not come to see her again because country folks are vulgar. She is much more genteel now than I am, or ever shall be. She looks sweetly in her snow-white aprons and homespun frocks. I prophesy that she will one day make as elegant a woman as her father's cousin, Mrs. Whately."

"And who is she? 99

"A very lovely woman whom I saw there this morning, dressed so neatly, SO -I don't know what to call it, for I hate the word genteelly. And then her carriage, that dark green coach, with the rich hammer-cloth, and the coal-black horses, all plain, yet so very elegant."

"And you say this was the Homespuns' cousin?" eagerly inquired Mrs. Fanshaw.

"Squire Morris's cousin, I said, mamma, and she had none of the fixed-up look that I do so abominate. Please give me something to wear besides this old trumpery, these old silk dresses and Madge Wildfire bonnets."

"I wish I had known before that there was such a lady visiting at the farm-house," said Mrs. Fanshaw, without taking any notice of her daughter's request. "Cannot you make some excuse to call again and find out something more about her?"