They were wealthy people and kind hearted, but her food and clothing were of the very simplest and rudest description, on Spartan principles.

A healthy, merry child, she did not much care for dress or eating; but the treatment which she felt as a real cruelty was this.

They had a carriage, in which she and the favourite dog were taken an airing on alternate days; the creature whose turn it was to be left at home being tossed in a blanket--an operation which my aunt especially dreaded.

Her affright at the tossing was probably the reason why it was persevered in.

Dressed-up ghosts had become common, and she did not care for them, so the blanket exercise was to be the next mode of hardening her nerves.