was very much pleased to learn how good a girl and how useful her
daughter had been. She was particularly pleased with her drawings. She
said that she had been very desirous to have Mary learn to draw, but
that she did not know it was possible to make so good a beginning
without a teacher.

"Why I _had_ a teacher," said Mary Bell. "I think that Mary
Erskine is a teacher; and a very good one besides."

"I think so too," said Mrs. Bell.

The children went out to get some wild flowers for Mary Bell to carry
home, and Mrs. Bell then asked Mary if she had begun to consider what
it was best for her to do.

"Yes," said Mary Erskine. "I think it will be best for me to sell
the farm, and the new house, and all the stock, and live here in this
house with my children."

Mrs. Bell did not answer, but seemed to be thinking whether this would
be the best plan or not.

"The children cannot go to school from here," said Mrs. Bell.

"No," said Mary Erskine, "but I can teach them myself, I think, till
they are old enough to walk to the school-house. I find that I can
learn the letters faster than Bella can, and that without interfering
with my work; and Mary Bell will come out here now and then and tell
us what we don't know."

"Yes," said Mrs. Bell, "I shall be glad to have her come as often
as you wish. But it seems to me that you had better move into the
village. Half the money that the farm and the stock will sell for,
will buy you a very pleasant house in the village, and the interest
on the other half, together with what you can earn, will support you
comfortably."

"Yes," said Mary Erskine, "but then I should be growing poorer, rather
than richer, all the time; and when my children grow large, and I want
the money for them, I shall find that I have spent it all. Now if I
stay here in this house, I shall have no rent to pay, nor shall I lose
the interest of a part of my money, as I should if I were to buy a
house in the village with it to live in myself. I can earn enough here
too by knitting, and by spinning and weaving, for all that we shall
want while the children are young. I can keep a little land with this
house, and let Thomas, or some other such boy live with me, and raise
such things as we want to eat; and so I think I can get along very
well, and put out all the money which I get from the farm and the
stock, at interest. In ten or fifteen years it will be two thousand
dollars. Then I shall be rich, and can mov