Sist. I know no rebellion in it. I do not what they would have.

Bro. They would have you come dr structed.

Sist. I sent them word I was indis

not but believe it, when they kn me: besides, I know their busin their instruction; at least of given me a taste of.

Bro. I have had a long

Sist. Well, and wha I suppose it is much

mother.

art I.

u go? u. I won't

I'll take me

ure, and never

abroad to-night? u let them think they

w to go to the Park. My to be sure: besides, we can't there's no going in a hackwhat we will do, then. I am for put trial, and see what my father will do,

have gone in spite of him; and yet ast to come off by it too at last, if we find him

Bro. Exactly though he ker. abundance of his pat Sist.

is the

d

J

That's well contrived, if it can be done! but how

w you go

about it?

I'll tell you. Let you and I go out through the garden, and take a walk in the close behind, under the

ime-trees.

say

When my father calls for me, my maid shall we are gone to the Park. If he hears it quietly, well and good, we will let him remain in the belief of it, that it If he flies out furiously we must may serve another time. come in again with good words, and tell him where we been, and that we have not been any further than the close behind the garden.

have

Bro. Admirably well thought of; let us go immediately; for my father and mother both will be here with you presently and if you are not gone, it will spoil all the con

trivance.

[They prepare to go down stairs, and the young lady talks thus with her maid.]

Mist. Pru.

Maid. Madam,

Mist. Here, take the key of the chamber, and stay in it till somebody comes to look for ma from my mother.

FAMILY INSTRUCTOR.

125

, or I shall think it very

it

the face in

What answer must I give them, Madam?
them my brother and I are gone out toge
say, you suppose we are gone to the

T

", Madam, that you said you were gone

you do not know whither we are suppose we are gone thither. Do we aither, you fool you?

they should be very inquisitive, they may ask

at reason I have to suppose so.

Mist. Is not that a good reason for you to think so, because we used to go thither always on Sunday-nights, without saying that we told you so?

Maid. Yes, Madam, I think it is; for, indeed, if you had said nothing to me, I should have thought you had been gone thither, and have told them so of my own accord.

Bro. This is a clear thought, my dear: but now we must do it quickly, for I find we are to have a general conference here this evening; and I suppose, we, that they call children too, are to be tutored before all the servants.

Mist. Pru, if you find my father and mother make a great stir for us, slip out through the garden, and perhaps you may find somebody at the back gate to tell you where we are; and then you may come and bring us intelligence.

Maid. Yes, Madam.

[They go out together a back way through the garden.] Bro. Come, we are far enough here, we are quite out of sight of the house; and, if your maid comes, we shall see her at the garden-gate well enough.

[They are walking under a row of trees, just where the father found his little child in the first dialogue.]

Sist. Now I cannot but laugh to think what a fright my mother will be in when she misses me.

Bro. As bad as if you were run away with a chaplain.
Sist. She has not been without some whims of that kind

in her head too; but she need not, I am not so fond of a preaching husband.

Bro. I doubt we shall discompose them for their new devotion, which they are setting up to-night.

Sist. Pray, brother, have you learned what they are to do? They treat me so oddly, they will have me comply with I know not what. I want to know what their design is, and what they pretend we are to do, or to be. It is all a heap of nonsense to me.

Bro. O they talk of a great family reformation, and we must submit to such rules, and such orders, as they shall please to give us; and, as I told you, we two were to be called down together, to be talked to among the rest of the children."

Sist. What, are we to turn babies again, and say our catechism?

Bro. I don't know; but my father, as I hear, intends to make a long discourse of his new schemes for the management of his family, to give them all new rules, and tell them what shall be the standing orders of his house for the future.

Sist. We have preaching enough at church, I think; cannot be let us alone at home?

Bro. I cannot tell what to say to it: but he wl do it, and e'en let him go in his own way. Let him make a school of his family, turn pedagogue himself, and make all his people school-boys. Let him but let me alone, I care not what he does.

Sist. Why, that's what I said before. The servants are here to day, and gone to-morrow: if he cannot get a parcel of fools this time, he may another, and, in time, perhaps he may get a whole house full of good pious creatures, that will say as he says, and do just as he bids them. There's my brother Will, and pious Betty, they are grown mighty good things already; and for the little children, they may make them do what they please: but as we are grown up to be past it, they may e'en use the rod and the

frown where it is fit to be used, and let us answer for ourselves. I think they cannot in reason deny us this.

Bro. Besides, had they done this gradually, and begun it sooner, we might, by degrees, have been brought to have liked it, or at least to have borne with it; but to be driven headlong into a thing of this kind, and forced at once to a whole change upon every part of our lives: this is the foolishest thing. What shall we look like in the world?

Sist. What, indeed. I am in a fine case already. I can say nothing to my Lady Lighthead, but make a lie, and send her word I was not well.

Bro. Yes, you may say you are but a child, and your mother boxed your ears for being a naughty girl, and would not let you go abroad.

Sist. Yes, and you may say to my Lord

when

he asks you, why you disappointed him, that you are but under government, and your father would not let you stir out of doors.

Bro. To be sure I shall affront all the persons of quality of my acquaintance, and shall look always like a schoolboy. When I am in company, they will ask me how I escaped out; if I have given my governor the slip; and if I have played truant. When I am for breaking off at night, and not willing to stay, they'll mock, and tell me, 1 must go home to family duty, and go say prayers like good boy.

Sist. Yes; and that if you stay any longer, you shall be whipped, or locked out of doors when you come home. Bro. In short, I had as good be out of the world. I am sure I shall be fit for no company in the world.

Sist. I wonder my father should not consider these things: he is no ignorant man, he knows well enough what belongs to being genteel, and has kept as good company himself as any body.

Bro. Why, that is true too; but he is so bewitched. with this new whimsey of having neglected the education

K

of his children, and the government of his family, that he is coming to a confession even to us. He talks of asking God forgiveness for it, and I know not what a deal of such stuff. I am persuaded he will bring his whole family into confusion.

Sist. I cannot tell what to make of it all; it is the oddest thing that ever I saw in my life.

Bro. However, since he will do so, and we cannot help it, I think it may be our best way to let him alone, let him go on; only let him leave us out, we are past tutelage, out of our minority; and I think they may let us alone, that is all I am for asking of him.

Sist. I wish they would but hear reason; if they would let us alone, we would let their reformation go on as it will.

Bro. But I see it will not be done; my father is so over submissive in his nfessions, and so warm in his proceedings, that I doubt he will also be obstinate; for nothing is more so than these enthusiastic fits of repentance.

Sist. What a tale is this! He repents, and we must perform the penance. For my part, brother, I cannot entertain any settled thoughts of the ridiculous change of life my mother talked of; there is not the least consistency in it. She says, she has sinned in neglecting to instruct us, and therefore we must all be cloistered up, upon the notion of reformation. If she has sinned, she must repent of it, I think. What is that to us? We did not make her to do it. What can we do in it? cannot educate us over again.

We are brought up now, she

Bro. Yes, she says we should have been taught so and so a long time ago; and, since it was not done then, it must be done now.

Sist. What will she teach us?

Bro. Nay, do not ask me. I suppose she told you herself what she would teach you.

Sist. No, she did not, perhaps she intended it; but she