Now, there is nurse; do you know those charming lines at the end of Miss Procter's pretty poem, "The Comforter?' So good night to my darling Effie: Keep happy, sweet heart, and grow wise; And two for her sleepy eyes. ABOUT JAMAICA. PART I. I AM going to give you an account of the first adventure I ever had; and, although it happened so many years ago, I remember all about it quite well. I was only six years old at the time, but it was talked of in the family for long afterwards, as you may suppose, and this prevented me from forgetting it. Then, by and by, as soon as the younger ones grew old enough to like stories, they would often beg their eldest sister to tell them the famous one of the 'great upset.' Since those days I have told the story many times to other children, and now I am going to repeat it once more. I daresay you would not wish me to begin with the geography or history of Jamaica, though I hope any little boy or girl who is interested in these stories will ask their papa to tell them where it is, and how it came to belong to us long ago, and that they will try to remember all about it. I will only say that it is a most beautiful island, with splendid scenery, lovely flowers and delicious fruits growing wild, parrots flying about the woods, and humming-birds flitting among the aloe-blossoms, But then, on the other hand, it is not nearly so nice a place to live in as our dear old England, in spite of her fogs and grey skies; for in Jamaica, as well as in all our West Indian Islands, the climate is very bad, except in the high mountains: there are earthquakes and hurricanes, snakes, mosquitoes, scorpions, and quantities of poisonous berries and blossoms. Children are seldom taken or kept there after two or three years old, and they have not the free out-door life of English boys and girls; for they are never allowed to go out except very early in the morning and late in the afternoon, on account of the hot sun, which would probably give them fever, or even kill them. When I first remember Jamaica, we had been there only a few months. My dear mother was too delicate to live in England during the winter, and my father had been fortunate enough to obtain what was in those days an excellent Government appointment. It was the year that Slavery was abolished: I am always glad to think it was done away with before I knew anything about the country; and the negroes, as I saw them, were only a good-humoured happy race for ever laughing and singing. The 'we' I have spoken of above included, besides Mamma and Papa, a young aunt of whom we children were excessively fond, an English nurse, my sister, and myself. Jessie was about four years old, the prettiest little fairy imaginable, and the idol and pet of every one. I am sorry to say I was very ugly, tall, thin, and sallow, and a regular Tom-boy, besides being the most mischievous child in the |