When you come to think that the parents of some of those children don't
earn sixteen shillings a-week!"

"Mons'rous," 'Bias agreed.

"But I don't understand, ma'am," said Cai, "that the children themselves
play the piano. I made inquiries about that, it being a new thing since
my day: and I'm told it's for the teachers to use in singin' lessson,
an' to help the children to keep time at drill an' what-not."

"The teachers? And who are the teachers, I'd like to know?--Nasty
stuck-up things, if they want the children to keep time, what's to
prevent their calling out 'One, two--right, left' like ordinary people?
But--oh, dear me, no! We're quite above _that!_ So it's tinkle-tum,
tinkle-tum, and all out of the rates."

"But 'one, two--right, left' wouldn' carry ye far in a singin' lesson,"
urged Cai.

"And who _wants_ all this singin'? There's William Skin, my waggoner,
for instance--five children, and a three-roomed cottage--all the
children attending school, and regular, too. Pleasant life it would be
for William, with all five coming home with 'The Sea, the Open Sea' in
their mouths and all about the house when he gets home from work!
Leastways it would be, if he wasn't providentially deaf."

"Is the woman deaf, too?" asked 'Bias.

"No. She believes in Education," said Mrs Bosenna. "She's _bound_ to
believe in anything that takes the children off her hands five days in
the week."

Cai puckered his brow. "But," said he, harking back, "I made inquiries,
too, who paid for the piano, and was told the teachers had collected the
money by goin' round with a subscription-list an gettin' up little
entertainments. So it doesn't come out of the rates."

"You appear to have had your eye on this openin' for some time,"
retorted Mrs Bosenna, with a faint flush of annoyance. She very much
disliked being proved in the wrong. "And it's not very polite of you to
contradict me!"

Cai was crestfallen at once. "I didn' mean it in that light, ma'am," he
stammered; "and I only made inquiries, d'ye see? Bein' ignorant of so
many things ashore. You'd be astonished how ignorant 'Bias an' me found
ourselves, first-goin' off."

"Speak for yourself," put in 'Bias.

"You should have come to me," said Mrs Bosenna. "I could have told you
all about Education, especially the sort that ought to be given to
labourers' children; and it's astonishin' to me the way some people will
talk on matters they know nothing about. My lat