few hours every
day, than to send him to a distance.'

"Mrs. Low was a gentle person, and wished to do right; she shed tears,
but made no resistance. Lucilla thought that her papa was right; she
had lately seen how naughty Bernard was getting; so Mr. Low had no
opposition either from his wife or daughter. When nurse, however, was
told that her darling was to go to school to Parson Evans, she was very
angry; and though she did not dare to speak her mind to her master, she
had no fear of telling it to her mistress and the young lady.

"'Well, to be sure,' she said, 'master has curious notions, to think of
sending such a delicate babe as Master Bernard to be kicked about by a
parcel of boys, and to be made to eat anything that's set before him,
whether he likes it or not. So good a child as he is too: so meek and
so tender, that if he but suspects a cross word, he is ready to jump
out of himself, and falls a-crying and quaking, and won't be appeased
anyhow, till the fit's over with him. Indeed, mistress, if you give him
up in this point, I won't say what the consequences may be.'

"'But, nurse,' said Lucilla, 'really Bernard does want to be kept a
little in order.'

"'And that from you, Miss?' answered the nurse; 'what would you feel,
was you to see him laid in his grave beside his precious little
brothers?'

"Lucilla could not answer this question, and Mrs. Low could not speak
for weeping; so nurse was left to say all she chose; and as Bernard
came in before she had cooled herself down, she told him what was
proposed, and said it would break her heart to part with him only for a
few hours every day.

"On hearing this, Bernard thought it a proper occasion to show off his
meek spirit, and so much noise did he make, and so rebellious and
stubborn was his behaviour, that his father, who heard him from a
distance, made up his mind to go that very evening to speak about him
to Mr. Evans. Mr. Low did not find the worthy man at home; he had
walked out with his nephew and three boys who boarded in the house; but
Mr. Low found Miss Evans in a small parlour, dressed, as she always was
in an evening, with some pretensions to fashion and smartness: she was
very busy with a huge basket of stockings, which she was mending.

"When Mr. Low told her his business, she was quite delighted, for she
had lived in that humble village till she thought Mr. Low one of the
greatest men in the world, because she never saw any greater. She
an