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170
Recollections of
[Ch. XV.

who resided in a little cottage directly overlooking the vale. Oftentimes would she threaten, if I did not repeat my letters correctly, to give me to the monk, who would carry me off in his lantern.

I perfectly recollect how heartily the emperor laughed at my describing the tricks I played old Sarah. I had a box of letters, which it was her daily duty to see me arrange and place in alphabetical order: my great fun was to turn them topsy-turvy, at the same time keeping them quite straight. When I placed them properly, I arranged them unevenly; but the dear old nurse, who did not understand a letter in her alphabet, was certain to commend me for the neat arrangement I had effected; but I was threatened with the friar when my lesson presented an untidy appearance, however right it might be.

The story attached to the valley was this. The place where the friar now stands, was supposed once to have been the site of a

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