"No, no, Rosalie! you'll be such a d——— long time over it—she shall hear me first—I'll be hanged if she doesn't!"
"I'm sorry to hear, Miss Matilda, that you've not got rid of that shocking habit yet."
"Well I can't help it; but I'll never say a wicked word again, if you'll only listen to me, and tell Rosalie to hold her confounded tongue."
Rosalie remonstrated, and I thought I should have been torn in pieces between them; but, Miss Matilda having the loudest voice, her sister at length, gave in, and suffered her to tell her story first: so I was doomed to hear a long account of her splendid mare, its breeding and pedigree, its paces, its action, its spirit, &c., and of her own amazing skill and courage in riding it, concluding with an assertion that she could clear a five-barred gate "like winking," that papa said she might hunt next time the hounds met, and mama had ordered a bright scarlet hunting-habit for her.
"Oh, Matilda! what stories you are telling!" exclaimed her sister.
"Well," answered she, no whit abashed, "I know I could clear a five-barred gate, if I tried,
