"There you sit, gobble, gobble, gobble, with never a word among the whole lot, and behind my back you can bawl the house down; a set of wretched dummies!" And so he dismisses us with a few more expressions of admiration and good-will.
"I am afraid Pimpernel Fair looks rather bad," says Alice, when we reach the schoolroom.
"After all it is not much of it!" says Milly.
No, it is not; and in our heart of hearts we despise, with its one circus, its penny peep-show, and its fat woman; but it is better than nothing, and when one has looked upon nothing but the face of one's own family for twelve months, anything is agreeable to the eye, and now that it seems to be receding in the distance Pimpernel Fair appears very attractive indeed!
Amberley comes in—Amberley to whom it is given to labour heavily at the tillage of our brains, and whom we look upon as a sedate and amiable old cow, who never kicks up her heels or does anything unexpected, but gives down knowledge in any quantity or quality whenever we choose to apply for it. She is a queer creature, Amberley. We used to play her tricks, and try to drive her out as we did all our other governesses; but she opposed a passive resistance to all our endeavours, that in the end conquered us. We might as well have knocked our heads by the hour against a stone wall. For oh! she is so meek! Give us a passionate person, an impulsive person, a person who loudly declares she will have her own way, but a meek, obstinate woman, no one can stand against her!
Lessons begin, and after our different fashions we attack the Tree of Knowledge. Alice goes at it gaily, and with a good heart; Milly weeps at its prickly rind; I skirmish round it; and Dolly and Alan sit down before it with moderate appetite. Happy Jack! who goes by with his dog at his heels; and unlucky me, who possess the tastes and spirit of a boy, and the useless body and petticoats of a girl!
