LEILA'S FEARS, AND HOW SHE CONQUERED THEM. PEILA! What is the matter? 'I am so sorry, Agnes,' said Leila, penitently, as she stooped to pick up the scattered beads. Kitty jumped on my lap, and frightened me so. I could not help- -O!' And with a scream she sprang away from the kitten, which had come to see what was the matter, and poked her soft head under Leila's arm. Baby woke, and screamed; and Gerald, imagining that something dreadful had happened, began to roar lustily. 'Leila, you little goose!' cried Agnes. 'Now, Gerald, cease that noise; you are not hurt. Just look at poor kitty under the table. She is quite frightened.' 'Miss Leila, how can you be so silly?' remonstrated nurse, as she soothed the baby; and as she spoke, Mrs. Wentworth came into the nursery, asking what was the matter. 'It was Eleanor's kitten, mother,' explained Agnes; 'it frightened Leila, and then Gerald and baby began to cry.' 'Who could be afraid of a dear sweet little kitty?' said Eleanor, caressing her favourite. 'Leila is afraid of everything,' scornfully added eight-year-old Donald. 'Leila must try to control herself,' said Mrs. Wentworth, gravely. She cannot help being frightened, but unless she learns to be more quiet about it she will be a great trouble to herself and her friends. Your father is very poorly; he had a bad night, and had just fallen asleep when this noise awoke him. Keep them as quiet as possible, nurse, for he sadly needs rest.' Poor little Leila sat still with burning cheeks and tearful eyes. She had not spoken a word, because a large lump seemed to rise in her throat, and she felt sure if she tried to speak she must cry. The kitten really had alarmed her very much, and now she feared she had made her father worse. He had been ill for some time, and Leila loved her parents so dearly she could not bear the thought of adding to their cares. She slipped noiselessly downstairs. The door of her father's room was ajar, and creeping to her mother's side, Leila told her how very sorry she was, and begged to know whether father was really worse. 'I think not, darling,' said Mrs. Wentworth, kissing the little anxious face. 'See, he has fallen asleep again, and as I am wanted downstairs you may sit here with a book for half an hour, and call me when he wakes. I know I can trust my little Leila to be quiet when she has nothing to frighten her.' Leila was glad to be trusted, and not sorry to escape from the other children and the kitten. Leila was a gentle, amiable child, but her extreme timidity was distressing to herself and to all around her. Donald was almost right when he said she was afraid of everything. In the house a cat or dog in the room kept her in a state of terror. Leila's walks were generally a misery to her, for though she dearly loved the country and the shady lanes and many flowers, she could not enjoy them fully, as she was continually on the look-out for ways of escape from the cows, horses and dogs. But far worse than all this was the fear Leila seldom spoke of her dread of the dark! To go upstairs alone after dusk was a greater trial to her than any one knew, and the half hour she had generally to pass in bed before Agnes joined her was full of terrors. She was ashamed to speak much of this fear except to Agnes, and she being afraid of nothing herself pitied her foolish little sister, helped her as much as she could, and then laughed at 'Leila's fancies.' Mrs. Wentworth often reasoned with her little girl on the folly of most of her fears, but with little visible effect. (To be continued.) LITTLE SALLY. BY MINA E. GOULDING, AUTHOR OF MOTHER'S PLACE,' ETC., ETC. SALLY soon roused herself from her reflections, and, going to a little heap of coals which lay in the corner, she picked up two or three lumps in her hands, and put them on the fire, rubbing her black fingers on her old frock afterwards. When the fire had brightened up a little, she filled the kettle and set it on. Then she started off to get a loaf of bread. Crouching on the stairs just outside her room was a boy, apparently about her own age. He was sobbing bitterly, and in a moment Sally was bending over him, and asking compassionately, 'What's the matter, Zeph ?' Upon hearing Sally's voice, the lad looked up into her face. 6 'I'll run away, Sally,' he sobbed in an undertone. She bin beatin' me again, and I never did nothin', only broke the handle off a cup, an' I never tried to.' Sally's dark eyes flashed very angrily. She's a nasty, wicked, cruel old thing, and I could beat her myself, I could,' she said, passionately. 'Hush'ee, Sally. She'll hear you.' 'I don't ceer if she do. Jus' you stick up to her, Zeph, an' tell her you ain't afeard on her.' 'No; I can't tell her that, but I'll run away," replied Zeph. Sally's eyes ceased flashing; indeed, they grew very dim. 'No! don't'ee run away, Zephie,' she said, gently. 'Mebbe you'd hunger to death, or get frozed up wi' the cold, and I should sit up a' nights and think all kinds o' orful things about 'ee. Don't'ee run away.' 'But she's that cross I dunno how to bide,' replied Zeph. Just then a shrill voice was heard calling up from the floor below 'Zeph! Zeph! Where on earth's that lazy lout got to? ZEPH.' 'I'll go and tell her she's a Sally's words failed her, and she could only press her lips tightly together, and look very fierce. 'Now, hush'ee, Sally.' Zeph looked up so beseechingly that Sally was quieted. She stood still while he went slowly downstairs in answer to his mother's call. Then she went down on tiptoe and stood outside the door. 'Get along out an' fetch some water before I give 'ee another dressin'. Won't I teach you to be a-smashin' up all the crocks!' was the greeting Zeph received. Sally heard the clank of the bucket, and then she went down a few steps lower, waiting for him. Another minute and the two were together again. 'Don't ceer for she, Zephie. Jus' you stick up to her. An' when she goes out tonight you come up and make a scratchy noise on the stairs, and I'll come out to 'ee.' Zeph promised. Then, not daring to linger longer, he began to drag his burden upstairs, while Sally started off for the bread. Half an hour after, when the kettle had just boiled up, a tall, thin woman quietly opened the attic door, and walked in. The blind man's face brightened, and turning it towards the door, he exclaimed, 'Ay! Marthy, you seemed long in comin' to-night!' 'I've had a hard day on't, a cleaning those cellars,' replied Sally's mother. Gran'fer heaved one of his deep sighs, and said nothing. Sally looked up sympathetically into her mother's face, and poured out a cup of tea for her. The tired woman drank it in silence. Presently, when Sally, in answer to the 'scratchy noise' made by Zeph, slipped out of the room, the blind man beckoned to Martha to come nearer to him. 20 WALKS AROUND LONDON. It was, in some respects, well for the old man that his memory was weak. Very soon all thoughts of the workhouse had vanished. from his mind, and he was stroking and fondling Toby. Meanwhile, Sally and Zeph were chatting quietly on the stairs outside. 'Gran'fer's bin talking to me,' said Sally. 'He thinks his mother told him as God made the clouds. I allus wanted to know who made 'em, so pretty and soft-like. Do you know for certain who God is?' Zeph shook his head. 'I've heerd Mother swearing about him, but I could never make no sense on't, and I've heerd the men about here the same.' 'Mebbe, 'tain't the same God,' suggested Sally, because you knows there's lots o' people has the same name; and 'tain't likely it's the same God as your mother and the men knows.' 'Gran'fer thinks God is very strong and clever, and that he don't like poor folks; but I can't make out why he should send them pretty red clouds a-flyin' over the sky for we to look at if he don't like us.' Zeph made a better listener than talker, and Sally continued 'You never come across a blind man's rest nowhere, I s'pose?' 'A what?' asked Zeph. 'A blind man's rest,' repeated Sally. 'A lady told gran'fer about it once, and said he'd be able to get in, or summut like that, and gran'fer never could find it.' 'I never heerd the name afore,' answered Zeph. Just then a footstep was heard on the creaking stairs below, and Zeph crept quietly off to his room, while Sally made her way back to her mother and gran'fer. WALKS AROUND LONDON. We have taken our young readers in thought have become slightly acquainted with their history; and now we are glad to turn from the noise of crowded London and find our |