Wallace proposes subjects. Malleville first called upon.

Why.

CHAPTER IV.

THE STORY-TELLING.

WALLACE knew very well that if he now began to call upon the children to relate stories, there was danger that they would one and all decline, and would say that they did not know any stories. He thought that he could diminish the danger of this result by aiding them a little in the selection of a subject. So he proposed that the subjects of all the stories should be accidents, misfortunes, and calamities.

"Try to think," said he, "all of you, of some misfortune or accident which has happened to you at some time or other, and let your story be about that. My story is about an accident that happened to me one night in being locked out of my father's house in New York. I shall tell you all about it, when it comes to my turn. In the same manner you can all think of something that has happened to you. I will call upon Malleville first."

The reason why Wallace called upon Malleville first was, that as she was so well acquaint

Story of the purple flower-glass.

The telegraph wire.

ed with him, he supposed that she would not be so much afraid as the others, to begin.

"I don't remember any accident," said Malleville, "unless I tell you about how I broke my little purple flower-glass.'

"That will do very well," said Wallace, “I am sure. Tell us all about it."

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Why, you see," said Malleville, "I tied it on my telegraph string, and the string broke or slipped off, and the glass fell down into the yard on the pavement, and broke to pieces."

Here Malleville paused, as if she had finished her story.

"But you must make a longer story of it than that," said Wallace. 66 You must tell us what the telegraph string was, and what you were doing with your glass. You must describe the place too, and thus explain the whole affair to us from beginning to end, like the stories in books."

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Well," said Malleville, "the telegraph was a wire that you made for Augusta and me, to go from my window up to her balcony. It was in New York. My window and her balcony were both behind the house. Her house is next to ours. There are a great many grape vines there, climbing up among the trellises and the

Malleville's description of the telegraph. The basket. The hook.

chimneys. The telegraph was a pretty strong wire. You fastened one end of it at her balcony, and the other end at my window, and we could pull things up and down on it.”

"How could you fasten them on ?" said Caroline.

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'Why, we had a hook,—a kind of a double hook; one end hooked upon the wire, and the other hung down a little, so that I could hook everything upon it which I wished to send up to Augusta."

"How could you make it go up?" asked Augusta.

"Oh, she pulled it up with a string," said Malleville. "There was a string fastened to the hook, and one end of it was fastened to Augusta's balcony. The string was so long, that when Augusta let it all out, it would lower the hook down to my window; and when I had taken off what she had sent down, I could put something else upon the hook, and Augusta could draw it up."

Wallace smiled at hearing this description of his contrivance. He remembered it very well.

We had a little basket," continued Malleville, "that we used to fasten to our hook to send things up and down in, and also a little bag

Mary Bell is requested to make a drawing.

which we sometimes put on. mail bag."

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We called it our

Was the balcony directly over your windows?" asked Mary Bell.

"No," said Malleville; "it was on one side. I wish that you would make a picture of it, Mary Bell."

"Oh, I could not make a picture of it," said Mary Bell.

"Yes, do, Mary Bell," said all the children, "do."

"I will make you a rough sketch," said Wallace to Mary Bell, "to show you the forms of the buildings, and the direction of the vines on the trellises."

So Wallace took out paper and a pencil from his pocket, and placing his pocket-book upon his knee for a desk, he began to make a sketch, while Mary Bell, who happened to be sitting pretty near him, and all the other girls who could get their heads near enough to see, looked over. As Wallace went on with his sketch, he accompanied his work with verbal explanations, such as "This is the back side of the block; here is a projection built out from one house, and here is another projection belonging to the next one. This is a trellis, and here is a mass of vines,

Mary Bell consents, on conditions.

She begins.

&c." The form and character of the buildings were so familiar to Wallace's mind, and the elements of the view were so simple and few, that he finished his sketch in a few minutes, and then all the girls were very eager to have Mary Bell go to the table and make the drawing at once, while the others were telling the stories. Mary seemed quite unwilling to venture on the undertaking. She finally, however, consented to try, on condition of not being required to tell a story. The picture was to be received instead. The children were at first very unwilling to accede to this condition, but Wallace told them he thought it was reasonable, and so the plan was agreed to, and Mary Bell was led to the table. She said that nobody must look over her while she was at work, but that they should all see the picture when it was finished. Wallace went up into his room and brought down some drawing paper and pencils, and Mary Bell then commenced her work, while the rest of the party resumed their seats, and prepared again to listen to the story.

"Well, Malleville," said Phonny, "go on." "I had a beautiful little flower glass," said Malleville, resuming her narrative, "that is, a glass to hold little bouquets of flowers in water.