her table that the daily expenses for herself and family did not exceed the moderate sum of forty ducats. She was equally simple and economical in her apparel. On all public occasions, indeed, she displayed a royal magnificence; but she had no relish for it in private, and she freely gave away her clothes and jewels as presents to her friends.

5. Naturally of a sedate though cheerful temper, she had little taste for the frivolous amusements which make up so much of a court life; and if she encouraged the presence of minstrels and musicians in her palace, it was to wean her young nobility from the coarser and less intellectual pleasures to which they were addicted. Among her moral qualities the most conspicuous, perhaps, was her magnanimity. She betrayed nothing little or selfish in thought or action. Her schemes were vast, and executed in the same noble spirit in which they were conceived.

6. She never employed doubtful agents or sinister measures, but the most direct and open policy. She scorned to avail herself of advantages offered by the perfidy of others. Where she had once given her confidence, she gave her hearty and steady support, and she was scrupulous to redeem any pledge she had made to those who ventured in her cause, however unpopular. She sustained Ximenes in all his obnoxious but salutary reforms. She seconded Columbus in the prosecution of his arduous enterprise, and shielded him from the calumnies of his enemies.

7. She did the same good service to her favorite, Gonsalvo de Cordova, and the day of her death

as the last of their good fortune. Artifice and duplicity were so abhorrent to her character and so averse from her domestic policy that, when they appear in the foreign relations of Spain, it is certainly not imputable to her. She was incapable of harboring any petty distrust or latent malice; and although stern in the execution and exaction of public justice, she made the most generous allowance, and even sometimes advances, to those who had personally injured her.

8. But the principle which gave a peculiar coloring to every feature of Isabella's mind was piety. It shone forth from the very depths of her soul with a heavenly radiance which illuminated her whole character. Fortunately, her earliest years had been passed in the rugged school of adversity, under the eye of a mother who implanted in her serious mind such strong principles of religion as nothing in after-life had power to shake. At an early age, in the flower of youth and beauty, she was introduced to her brother's court, but its blandishments, so dazzling to a young imagination, had no power over hers, for she was surrounded by a moral atmosphere of purity, driving far off each thing of sin and guilt. Such was the decorum of her manners that, though encompassed by false friends and open enemies, not the slightest reproach was breathed on her fair name in this corrupt and calumnious court.

PRESCOTT,

LESSON XXIV.

A FAMILY SCENE.

1. THE first appearance of the Holm was highly prepossessing. It was a large, handsome-looking house, situated in a well-wooded park, by the side of a broad, placid river; and an air of seclusion and stillness reigned all around, which impressed the mind with images of peace and repose. The interior of the house was no less promising. There was a spacious hall and a handsome staircase, with all appliances to boot; but, as the party approached the drawing-room, all the luxurious indolence of thought inspired by the tranquillity of the scenery was quickly dispelled by the discordant sounds which issued thence; and, when the door was thrown open, the footman in vain attempted to announce the visitors.

2. In the middle of the room all the chairs were collected to form a coach and horses for the Masters and Misses Fairbairn. One unruly-looking urchin sat in front, cracking a long whip with all his might; another acted as guard behind, and blew a shrill trumpet with all his strength; while a third, who had somewhat the air of having quarrelled with the rest of the party, paraded up and down, in a nightcap and flannel lappet, beating a drum, in solitary majesty. On a sofa sat Mrs. Fairbairn, a soft, fair, genteel-looking woman, with a crying child about three years old at her side, tearing paper into shreds, seemingly for the delight of littering the carpet, which was already strewed with

headless dolls, tailless horses, and wheelless carts. As she rose to receive her visitors it began to

scream.

3. "I'm not going away, Charlotte, love; don't be frightened," said the fond mother, with a look of ineffable pleasure.

"You sha'n't get up," screamed Charlotte, seizing her mother's gown fiercely to detain her.

"My darling, you'll surely let me go to speak to uncle-good uncle, who brings you pretty things, you know." But, during this colloquy, uncle and the ladies had made their way to the enthralled mother, and the bustle of a meeting and introduction was got over. The footman obtained chairs with some difficulty, and placed them as close to the mistress of the house as possible, aware that, otherwise, it would not be easy to carry on even question and answer amid the tumult that reigned.

4. "You find us rather noisy, I am afraid,” said Mrs. Fairbairn with a smile, and in a manner which evidently meant the reverse; "but this is Saturday, and the children are all in such spirits, and they won't stay away from me. Henry, my dear, don't crack your whip quite so loud-there's a good boy; that's a new whip his papa brought him from London, and he's so proud of it! William, my darling, don't you think your drum must be tired now? If I were you, I would give it a rest. Alexander, your trumpet makes rather too much noise; one of these ladies has a headache. Wait till you go out-there's my good boy-and then you'll blow it at the cows and sheep, you know, and frighten them. Oh, how you will frighten. them with it!"

5. "No, I'll not blow it at the cows; I'll blow it at the horses, because then they'll think 'tis the mail-coach." And he was running off, when Henry jumped down from the coach-box.

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'No, but you sha'n't frighten them with your trumpet, for I shall frighten them with my whip. Mamma, are not horses best frightened with a whip?" And a struggle ensued.

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'Well, don't fight, my dears, and you shall both frighten them," cried their mamma.

"No, I'm determined he sha'n't frighten them; I shall do it," cried both together, as they rushed out of the room, and the drummer was preparing to follow.

6. "

"William, my darling, don't you go after those naughty boys; you know they're always very bad to you. You know they wouldn't let you into their coach with your drum." Here William began to cry. "Well, never mind, you shall have a coach of your own-a much finer coach than theirs; I wouldn't go into their ugly, dirty coach; and you shall have-" Here something of a consolatory nature was whispered ; William was comforted, and even prevailed upon to relinquish his drum for his mamma's ivory work-box, the contents of which were soon scattered on the floor.

7. "Those boys are gone without their hats," cried Mrs. Fairbairn in a tone of distress. "Eliza, my dear, pull the bell for Sally to get the boys' hats." Sally being despatched with the hats, something like a calm ensued in the absence of they of the whip and the trumpet; but as it will be of short duration, it is necessary to take advantage