CHAMBERS'
EDINBURGH JOURNAL

THE HALF-BOARDER.

BY MRS ALARIC A. WATTS.

When a naturalist is desirous of describing any genus ofpeculiar interest in the world of nature, we generallyfind him selecting one of the kind as a specimen fromwhich to draw his description of the whole race; satisfiedthat, although distinctions may exist in minor detailsbetween it and others of its species, the general characteristicswill be found alike in all.

In endeavouring to sketch the principal incidents inthe history of a class whose trials seem peculiarly interesting,because coming at a period of life usually exemptedfrom them, I have pursued a similar course; andthough the career of my heroine may present featurespeculiar to itself, as must ever be the case with personalhistory, her experiences will, I believe, be found to differin no essential particular from those of the great body ofher sisterhood. It can hardly be deemed necessary perhapsto begin the biography of the half-boarder from thehour of her birth; it may be sufficient to state that sheis usually the eldest daughter of parents of the middleclass, depressed into comparative poverty either by misfortuneor imprudence, but blessed with the inalienableadvantage of belonging to 'a good family,' and being enabledto boast of relatives of consideration in the world.Her earliest years are too often passed amid all the horrorsof genteel but biting penury; in witnessing, daily, caresthat have become familiarised, though not lightened, toher by frequent recurrence; and sharing anxieties which,though studiously concealed from her, experience hasenabled her to divine, without suggesting any means ofalleviating

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