nder if
she became thin, and her cheek grew pale, losing the rosy tint which it
wore, when as a girl she lived among the hills of New England! Better
times had come to her at length. She would probably be expected to
spend considerable time daily out of doors, as her pupils were too young
to study much or long at a time. It was a blessed freedom, so she felt,
and she was sure that she should enjoy the society of the two little
girls, having a natural love for children. She did not expect to like
them as well as Rose, for Rose seemed partly her own child, but she
didn't doubt that she should ere long become attached to them.

Then, again, she would not only enjoy an agreeable home, but for the
first time would receive such compensation for her services as to be
quite at ease in her pecuniary circumstances. Five dollars a week might
not be a large sum to a lady with expensive tastes; but Miss Manning had
the art of appearing well dressed for a small sum, and, as she made her
own clothes, she estimated that three dollars a week would clothe both,
and enable her to save two dollars weekly, or a hundred dollars a year.
This was indeed a bright prospect to one who had been engaged in a
hand-to-hand struggle with poverty for the last five years.

She went into a Broadway bookstore, and purchased primers for her new
pupils, and a more advanced reading-book for Rose. At the end of an hour
they returned home. They found an express wagon at the door. Two men
were lifting out a sofa and a rocking-chair.

"They are for your room, Miss Manning," said Jennie. "I heard ma tell pa
this morning, to stop at a furniture place and buy them."

Mr. Colman had certainly been prompt, for, though it was still early,
here they were.

When they were carried upstairs, and placed in her room, Miss Manning
looked about her with pardonable pride and satisfaction. Though the room
was on the fourth floor, it looked quite like a parlor. She felt that
she should take great comfort in so neat and pleasant a room. It was a
great contrast to her dull, solitary, laborious life in the shabby room,
for which, poor as it was, she oftentimes found it difficult to provide
the weekly rent.

There were no lessons that morning, for Miss Manning had her trunk to
unpack, and Rose's clothes and her own to lay away in the
bureau-drawers. She had about completed this work when the bell rang
for lunch. Taking Rose by the hand, she led her downstairs to the
basement,