utwardly, subsided, but deep in all three hearts new emotions were born
never to die.

After that there was a triangle truce. The years slipped by. Theodora
taught her little daughter to read by a novel method which served the
double purpose of quickening the keen intellect and arousing a
housewifely skill.

The alphabet was learned from the labels on the cans of vegetables and
fruits on Theodora's shelves. There was one line of goods made by a firm,
according to its own telling, high in the favour of "their Majesties So
and So," that was rich in vowels and consonants. When Priscilla found
that by taking innocent looking little letters and stringing them
together like beads she could make words, she was wild with delight, and
when she discovered that she could further take the magic words and by
setting them forth in orderly fashion express her own thoughts or know
another's thoughts, she was happy beyond description.

"Father," she panted at that point, her hands clasped before her, her
dark, blue-eyed face flushing and paling, "will you let me go to Master
Farwell to study with the boys?"

Nathaniel eyed her from the top step of the porch; "with the boys" had
been fatal to the child's request.

"No," he said firmly, the old light of antagonism glinting suddenly under
his brow, "girls don't need learning past what their mothers can give
them."

"I--do! I'm willing to suffer and _die_, but I do want to know things."
She was an intense atom, and from the first thought true and straight.

A sharp memory was in her mind and it lent fervour to her words. It
related to the episode of the small, fat mustard jar which always graced
the middle of the dining table. They had once told her that the contents
of the jar "were not for little girls."

They had been mistaken. She had investigated, suffered, and learned!
Well, she was ready to suffer--but learn she must!

Nathaniel shook his head and set forth his scheme of life for her,
briefly and clearly.

"You'll have nothing but woman ways--bad enough you need them--they will
tame and keep you safe. You'll marry early and find your pleasure and
duty in your home."

Priscilla turned without another word, but there was an ugly line between
her eyes.

That night and the next she took the matter before a higher judge,
and fervently, rigidly prayed. On the third night she pronounced
her ultimatum. Kneeling by the tiny gable window of her grim little
bedchamber, her face