a pony talking to a great girl, who was lying on the grass; but the prettiest group of girls were standing or kneeling round a pet lamb which they were decking with wreaths of flowers.  They none of them wore bonnets nor walking dresses, and even the boy on the pony was without a hat.  Why they had all agreed to uncover their heads, I cannot say exactly, but I know they had been having some joke about it before the young Mortimers arrived; and the great girl on the turf had even then got her brother’s cap and had hidden it somewhere, and it was to ask her about it he had ridden up to her on his pony, as she rested on the grass.

[Illustration]

“Oh! they are all girls but one,” exclaimed Marten in a disappointed tone, “and I am afraid I shall not find the boys easily, and I hate playing with girls.”

“As much as we girls dislike playing with rude boys, master Mortimer,” said Jane Roscoe, advancing forwards and replying to Marten’s speech, which had really been addressed to John; “but understand we are the fairies of this lawn—­this is our territory, and my aunt Jameson has bestowed it upon us.  We take tribute if you intrude on our premises, so either be off to your own mates, or lay down your cap as owning our sway as ladies and queens of the lawn.”

“I am sure I would rather go to your brother, or Edward, Miss Roscoe,” replied Marten, “if you would but tell me where I should find them.”

“No doubt near the stables, or at the dog kennels,” she answered pertly, “so you had better go, for I tell you we don’t want boys amongst us; we have had some trouble in ridding ourselves of them just now.”

“And if they are all like you, I am sure I for one don’t want to stay,” thought Marten; and he took Reuben’s hand to seek his friends, where the young lady had so uncourteously directed him to find them.

And here, before I would follow Marten to find his young friends, I would wish to remark that it is such girls as Jane Roscoe who make rude boys, and such young women that make rude men.  Boys and men generally take their manners from the females with whom they associate, and when one sees a very rude boy, it does not speak well for his sisters at home, or at least for the young ladies with whom he may happen to be most intimate.  As to regular schoolboys, they are rude, because schoolboys in general are famed for bad manners, and young gentlemen seem to like to bring this odium on schools, fancying rudeness is manliness, when in reality it is a decided sign of the contrary.  Think of the bravest men that have been known, that is bravest in their own persons, and I will venture to say they have been gentle and courteous in female society, for they know and feel they can dare to be so, as their credit for manly daring is known and acknowledged by every one.  Take one of your rough ones, and I for one set him down as a mere bully, that hides his cowardice under blustering words.  But I have wandered somewhat from my point, for I was saying rude girls make rude boys, as shewn in the case of Jane Roscoe; and civil girls make civil boys, as evinced in her sister Mary, as I am going to relate.