he week, upon which nights he gave them instruction on a plan
of his own. He had thought the matter so little likely to succeed at
first, that he had engaged in it as a private work, and did not even
mention it until his friends discovered it by chance.

Said Jud Bates to Miss Barholm, during one of their confidential
interviews:

"Did tha ivver go to a neet skoo?"

"No," said Anice.

Jud fondled Nib's ears patronizingly.

"I ha', an' I'm goin' again. So is Nib. _He's_ getten one."

"Who?" for Jud had signified by a gesture that _he_ was not the dog, but
some indefinite person in the village.

"Th' little Parson."

"Say, Mr. Grace," suggested Anice. "It sounds better."

"Aye--Mester Grace--but ivverybody ca's him th' little Parson. He's
getten a neet skoo i' th' town, an' he axed me to go, an' I went I
took Nib an' we larned our letters; leastways I larned mine, an' Nib he
listened wi' his ears up, an' th' Par--Mester Grace laffed. He wur na
vext at Nib comin'. He said 'let him coom, as he wur so owd-fashioned.'"

So Mr. Grace found himself informed upon, and was rather abashed at
being confronted with his enterprise a few days after by Miss Barholm.

"I like it," said Anice. "Joan Lowrie learned to read and write in a
night school. Mr. Derrick told me so."

A new idea seemed to have been suggested to her.

"Mr. Grace," she said, "why could not _I_ help you? Might I?"

His delight revealed itself in his face. His first thought was a
selfish, unclerical one, and sudden consciousness sent the color to his
forehead as he answered her, though he spoke quite calmly.

"There is no reason why you should not--if you choose," he said, "unless
Mr. Barholm should object. I need not tell you how grateful I should
be."

"Papa will not object," she said, quietly.

The next time the pupils met, she presented herself in the school-room.

Ten minutes after Grace had given her work to her she was as much at
home with it as if she had been there from the first.

"Hoo's a little un," said one of the boys, "but hoo does na seem to be
easy feart. Hoo does not look a bit tuk back."

She had never been so near to Paul Grace during their friendship as
when she walked home with him. A stronger respect for him was growing
in her,--a new reverence for his faithfulness. She had always liked and
trusted him, but of late she had learned to do more. She recognized
more fully the purity and singleness of his life. She accused he