Hark!  I have two or three times heard a very musical laugh in the direction of the kitchen.  Heigh-ho!  How can any mortal laugh in Ratborough!  Having nothing better to do, I will go and see who this very merry personage may be.  I will inquire into this gay outbreak, in a land of stupidity.  Hark, again!—­how refreshing!  I must and will know what caused such a gush of mirth.  Irish humor, perhaps, for Norah is laughing, after her guttural fashion, too.—­

As I popped my head into the kitchen, Little Ugly was just vanishing at the opposite door.  I could not make Norah tell me what Miss Etty put under her arm, as she looked over her shoulder at me, and darted out of sight.  O my noisy boots!  I might as well wear a bell round my neck.

Stage-wheels are rattling up the road.  Now they run upon the grass before the door.  I rush in undignified haste to the window.  Shall I—­will I—­go and help this long-expected Miss Flora to alight?  No,—­for I see forty boxes on the coach-top.  A very handsome girl, really!  I will get out a blameless dickey,—­if such there be.  First impressions are important.  I wish my hair was cut!

I hear my aunt coming to inform me of Flora’s arrival.  I shall be hugely surprised!  Humph!—­will it be worth while to trouble myself about the lop-eared dickey?  Little Ugly will be amused, if I do.  She can laugh, it seems.  I had thought there was no fun in her mental composition.  Yet I have imagined a glimmer or so in her eyes, when she thought I was not looking at them, and the shadow of a dimple in her cheek now and then.

Instead of Adonizing, I will set my long locks on end, and don my slipshod slippers.  “Yes, Aunt; I hear, good lady!  I will presently arrive, to make my bow to Little Handsome.”

* * * * *

Journal, Sept. 23d.  Truly, the presence of Miss Flora Cooper makes Willow Valley a new place.  At least six hours are taken from the length of the days, though I have given up my afternoon slumber, and play chess and backgammon instead of drumming on the table or piano.  Now am I relieved from that tedious companion, my own self.  I never liked him very well; I had rather do any thing than have a sober talk with a serious personage, who always takes me to do for not making more of him.  He scolds me, just as a stay-at-home wife lectures a gay husband, who never returns to his better half when he finds any thing to amuse him abroad.  Good-by, old fellow; I have found better company than your rememberings or hopings; to wit, Miss Flora Cooper, alias Little Handsome, alias Aunt Tabby’s Canary.