ine old
family mansion, in the midst of her tenants and the poor, who lived in a
state of chronic alarm lest she should be coming down upon them with
some new and vigorous alteration or improvement. Her daughter was in
some respects like her mother, as full of energy, but with a little more
discretion; bright as a sunbeam, and honest as the day; abounding also
in good works. Such were the three families who maintained an intimacy
with Colonel Dawson, when the rest of the neighbouring gentry dropped
off into ordinary acquaintances.

CHAPTER THREE.

"THE NEW SCHOOL."

When the family had occupied Park House about four months, a great deal
of curiosity and excitement was felt by the inhabitants of Bridgepath,
the little hamlet of five hundred persons in the rear of Riverton Park,
in consequence of sundry cart-loads of bricks, stone, and lime being
deposited on a field which was situated a few yards from the principal
beer-shop. The colonel was going to build, it seemed,--but what?
Possibly a full-grown public-house. Well, that would be a very
questionable improvement. Was it to be a school, or a reading-room?

There was a school already, held in the parlour of the blacksmith's
cottage, where a master attended on week-days, weather permitting, and
imparted as much of the three R's as the children, whose parents thought
it worth while to send them, could be induced to acquire under the
pressure of a moderate amount of persuasion and an immoderate amount of
castigation.

The master came in a pony-cart from Franchope, and returned in the same
the moment the afternoon school broke up, so that his scholars had ample
opportunity, when he was fairly gone, to settle any little disputes
which might have arisen during school hours by vigorous fights on the
open green, the combatants being usually encouraged to prolong their
encounters to the utmost by the cheers of the men who gathered round
them out of the neighbouring beer-shops.

As for religious instruction, the master, it is true, made his scholars
read a portion of the Scriptures twice a week, and learn a few verses.
But they would have been almost better without this; for the hard,
matter-of-fact way in which he dealt with the Holy Book and its
teachings would make the children rather hate than love their Bible
lesson.

And what was done for the improvement, mental or spiritual, of the
grown-up people? Nothing. Neither church nor chapel existed in the
plac