HARRY BEAUFOY, &c. CHAPTER I. Much design Is seen in all their motion, all their make: ་་་་་་་ YOUNG. HARRY BEAUFOY, a clever, active boy of ten years old, was very busily employed, one summer evening, in weeding and watering his little garden. At length, having finished the work to his satisfaction, he took his rake and wateringpot to the tool-house, and hung them B up in their places: he then went to look for his mother. Mrs. Beaufoy still sat reading in the summer-house, whither Harry had seen her go soon after tea. "I suppose your book is a very entertaining one, mamma," said he; "but I think even Robinson Crusoe would not have kept me in doors so long this beautiful evening: it is very cool and pleasant now, and I want to show you my garden before it is dark. I have been weeding and watering, and tying up my pinks; and it looks so neat that you will like to see it." "I will go with you, my dear," replied his mother. So saying, she took a slip of paper off the table, and put it carefully into her book before she closed it. "I am not so particular about marks," said Harry : "I mostly read where I see something entertaining, unless it happens to be a new story, and then I can understand it better if I begin and go straight on; but I can always find my place without a mark." "You must waste some minutes in doing so; and your practice of reading wherever you happen to see an entertaining passage is a childish trick, of which you will probably cure yourself when you really wish to gain knowledge." "I wish that now, mamma. There is a great deal of pleasure in knowing what is entertaining, or even useful, as I found yesterday about your watch." Mrs. Beaufoy smiled. "So then, the useful is placed below the agreeable in your scale; and I believe, at your age, this is very natural: but if so, it is of great consequence that you should early acquire a love for what is excellent, and a taste for order, which will make the acquisition of knowledge pleasant to you; or else there is great danger that your love of being entertained will give you the frivolous turn of thought which is the certain consequence of indulging a habit of wandering from object to object, or even from book to book, without any plan beyond the amusement of the passing hour." "Frivolous; that means trifling, insignificant. Oh! I should be very sorry to be frivolous, for then every body would despise me. I hope I shall never be that. And you see I have a taste for order in some things, mamma. My garden, for instance: look now, if it is not as neat as you could wish it to be !". "I think it does you credit, Harry; and I am glad to see that you have had patience to allow time for the seeds of your annuals to come up. I expected that the present pleasure of using your new rake would occasion the destruction of your flowers. Now your garden is likely to be as gay as it is neat; and I hope you will be encouraged to cultivate the love of order and design in other affairs, as well as in gardening." "Well then, mamma, do you not remember yesterday? When we examin |