rom outlying
cottages of Fordholm and Abbotstoke, and there was even a smart little
farmer, who had been unbearable at home.

Margaret's unsuccessful bath-chair was lent to Cherry, and in it her
scholars drew her to Stoneborough every Sunday, and slowly began to
redeem their character with the ladies, who began to lose the habit of
shrinking out of their way--the Stoneborough children did so instead;
and Flora and Ethel were always bringing home stories of injustice
to their scholars, fancied or real, and of triumphs in their having
excelled any national school girl. The most stupid children at Cocksmoor
always seemed to them wise in comparison with the Stoneborough girls,
and the Sunday-school might have become to Ethel a school of rivalry,
if Richard had not opened her eyes by a quiet observation, that the town
girls seemed to fare as ill with her, as the Cocksmoor girls did with
the town ladies. Then she caught herself up, tried to be candid, and
found that she was not always impartial in her judgments. Why would
competition mingle even in the best attempts?

Cherry did not so bring forward her scholars that Ethel could have many
triumphs of this dangerous kind. Indeed, Ethel was often vexed with
her; for though she taught needlework admirably, and enforced correct
reading, and reverent repetition, her strong provincial dialect was a
stumbling-block; she could not put questions without book, and nothing
would teach her Ethel's rational system of arithmetic. That she was a
capital dame, and made the children very good, was allowed; but now and
then, when mortified by hearing what was done at Stoneborough, Fordholm,
or Abbotstoke, Ethel would make vigorous efforts, which resulted only in
her coming home fuming at Cherry's "outrageous dullness."

These railings always hurt Margaret, who had made Cherry almost into a
friend, and generally liked to have a visit from her during the
Sunday, when she always dined with the servants. Then school questions,
Cocksmoor news, and the tempers of the children, were talked over, and
Cherry was now and then drawn into home reminiscences, and descriptions
of the ways of her former school. There was no fear of spoiling
her--notice from her superiors was natural to her, and she had the
lady-likeness of womanly goodness, so as never to go beyond her own
place. She had had many trials too, and Margaret learned the true
history of them, as she won Cherry's confidence, and entered into the