On this morning, Miss Jenny enters Mrs Teachum's study to ask her permission to read a certain story to her friends. Mrs Teachum is delighted at Jenny's good sense. Mrs Teachum assures her that she has shown that she understands their conversation on Monday night, and tells Jenny that she has earned her trust. Jenny replies that she hopes never to lose it. Jenny hurries to her group and explains to them the story she wishes to read. The group has become accustomed to doing whatever Jenny decides, and they readily agree with one exception. Miss Polly Suckling wonders if it might be better to read some true history so as to be able to learn something from it, rather than a fairy tale. At this Jenny replies with a story. When Jenny was six, a man travelled to her village in possession of a curiosity that the whole town came out to see, but Jenny thought it beneath her to do so. Even when her mother gave her permission, she refused to go. Her mother laughed and told her, that she had already been to see it, and enjoyed it. Then Jenny's mother taught her that she should avoid 'affectation' to not become contemptible. Miss Polly sees her wisdom and, blushing, agrees to hear the story.