educated.

Regularly each week she wrote to him, and it was the receipt of these
letters, and the thoughts of her that kept his heart so brave and
cheerful, as, alone and unappreciated, except by George, he worked on,
dreaming of a bright future, when the one great object of his life
should be realized.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SCHOOL-MISTRESS.

In the old brown school-house, overshadowed by apple-trees and
sheltered on the west by a long steep hill, where the acorns and wild
grapes grew, Mary Howard taught her little flock of twenty-five,
coaxing some, urging others, and teaching them all by her kind words
and winsome ways to love her as they had never before loved an
instructor.

When first she was proposed as a teacher in Rice Corner, Widow
Perkins, and a few others who had no children to send, held up their
hands in amazement, wondering "what the world was comin' to, and if
the committee man, Mr. Knight, s'posed they was goin' to be rid over
rough-shod by a town pauper; but she couldn't get a _stifficut_, for
the Orthodox minister wouldn't give her one; and if he did, the
Unitarian minister wouldn't!"

Accordingly, when it was known that the ordeal had been passed, and
that Mary had in her possession a piece of paper about three inches
square, authorizing her to teach a common district school, this worthy
conclave concluded that "either every body had lost their senses, or
else Miss Mason, who was present at the examination, had sat by and
whispered in her ear the answers to all hard questions." "In all my
born days I never seen any thing like it," said the widow, as she
distributed her green tea, sweetened with brown sugar, to a party of
ladies, which she was entertaining "But you'll see, she won't keep her
time more'n half out.--Sally Ann, pass them nutcakes.--Nobody's goin'
to send their children to a pauper. There's Miss Bradley says she'll
take her'n out the first time they get licked.--Have some more sass,
Miss Dodge. I want it eat up, for I believe it's a workin',--but I
telled her that warn't the trouble; Mary's too softly to hurt a
miskeeter. And so young too. It's government she'll lack in.--If any
body'll have a piece of this dried apple pie, I'll cut it."

Of course, nobody wanted a piece, and one of the ladies, continuing
the conversation, said she supposed Mary would of course board with
Mrs. Mason. The tea-pot lid, which chanced to be off, went on with a
jerk, and with the air of a much