essence of fine
manners, I never saw any, Lorena Jane."

"I--I s'pose it does, Lavina," agreed Mrs. Huzzard; "though I never heard
any one go on much about his manners before. And as for me--well," and she
looked a bit embarrassed, "I ain't the best judge myself. I've had such a
terrible hard tussle to make a living since my man died, that I hain't had
time to study fine manners. I'll have time enough before long, I suppose,
for Dan Overton surely has offered me liberal living wages. But, Lavina,
even if I did want to learn now, I wouldn't know where to commence."

"Well, Lorena, since you mention it, there is lots of room for
improvement in your general manner. You've been with careless people, I
suppose, and bad habits are gathered that way. Now I never was much of a
genius--couldn't trim a bonnet like you to save my life; but I did have a
most particular mother; and she held that good manners was a
recommendation in any land. So, even if her children had no fortune left
them, they were taught to show they had careful bringing up. One of my
ideas in coming out here was that I might teach deportment in some Indian
school, but not much of that notion is left me. Could I ever teach
Flap-Jacks to quit scratching her head in the presence of ladies and
gentlemen? No."

"I don't think," said Mrs. Huzzard, in a meditative way, "that I mind the
scratching so much as I do the dratted habit she has of carrying the
dish-cloth under her arm when she don't happen to be using it. That just
wears on my nerves, it does. But I tell you what it is, Lavina--if you are
kind of disappointed on account of not getting Indian scholars that suit
just yet, I'm more than half willing you should teach me the deportment,
if you'd be satisfied with one big white scholar instead of a lot of
little red ones."

"Yes, indeed, and glad to do it," said Miss Slocum, frankly. "Your heart
is all right, Lorena Jane; but a warm heart will not make people forget
that you lean your elbow on the table and put your food into your mouth
with your knife. Such things jar on other people just as Flap-Jacks and
the dish-cloth jar on you. Don't you understand? But your desire to
improve shows that you are a very remarkable woman, Lorena, for very few
people are willing to learn new habits after having followed careless ones
for forty years."

"Thirty-nine," corrected Lorena Jane, showing that, however peculiar and
remarkable her wisdom might be in some directions,