Sometimes she would
say, "Why, I would have done so," and he found her course would be on
the side of the finest right, if not what was considered feasible.

The spelling was a trial when the words were a little obscure. And
though she had a wonderful knack of guessing at things, she surely was
not born for a mathematician. He had a fine, quick mind in that respect.
But the Latin was a delight to her and she delved away at the difficult
parts for the sake of what she called the grand and beautiful sound. His
rendering of it enchanted her.

"I don't see any sense in educating her like a boy," declared Elizabeth.
"And she can't do a decent bit of hemming. She ought to work a sampler
and learn the letters to mark her own clothes. We did it before we were
her age. Chilian thinks you can hire people to do these things for you,
but it seems so helpless not to be able to do them for yourself.
Housekeeping is of more account than all this folderol. She can never be
a college professor."

"But women _are_ keeping schools," interposed Eunice.

"They don't teach Latin and all kinds of nonsense. That Miss Miller was
here a few days ago to see if we didn't want our niece--folks are
beginning to call her that--to see if we did not want her to take
lessons on the spinet. I was so glad she did not appeal to Chilian,
though he was out. I said, 'No,' very decidedly, 'that she had a good
many things to learn before she tackled that.' And she said she ought
to be trained while her fingers were flexible, and I said I thought
washing would make them flexible enough. And there's fine ironing."

"There's no need of either for her," protested Eunice.

"Oh, you don't know. There might be a war again. And a trouble about
money. I'm sure there is talk enough and the country raising loans all
the time, one party pulling one way, one the other. People are getting
awfully extravagant nowadays. Patty Conant gave seven dollars a yard for
her new black silk, and there were twelve yards. It broke pretty well
into a hundred, and there was some fancy gimp and fringe and the making.
Of course, there's going to be two weddings in the family, and I don't
suppose Patty will ever buy another handsome gown at her time of life.
Abner brought her home that elegant crape shawl, with the fringe and
netting nearly half a yard deep. Maybe 'twas a present, she let it go
that way."

"Of course, there's money enough among the Conants," Eunice commented
gently.