prise to guide.
And conscience to upstir him,
And duty by his side,
And hope forever singing
Assurance of success,
And rapid action springing
At once to nothing less!

--_M.F. Tupper_.

In this persevering labor Ishmael cheerfully passed the winter months.

He had not heard one word of Claudia, or of her father, except such
scant news as reached him through the judge's occasional letters to the
overseer.

He had received an encouraging note from Mr. Middleton in answer to the
letter he had written to that gentleman. About the first of April
Ishmael's first quarterly school bills began to be due.

Tuition fees were not high in that poor neighborhood, and his pay for
each pupil averaged about two dollars a quarter. His school numbered
thirty pupils, about one-third of whom never paid, consequently at the
end of the first three months his net receipts were just forty-two
dollars. Not very encouraging this, yet Ishmael was pleased and happy,
especially as he felt that he was really doing the little savages
intrusted to his care a great deal of good.

Half of this money Ishmael would have forced upon Hannah and Reuben; but
Hannah flew into a passion and demanded if her nephew took her for a
money-grub; and Reuben quietly assured the young man that his services
overpaid his board, which was quite true.

One evening about the middle of April Ishmael sat at his school desk
mending pens, setting copies, and keeping an eye on a refractory boy who
had been detained after school hours to learn a lesson he had failed to
know in his class.

Ishmael had just finished setting his last copy and was engaged in
piling the copy-books neatly, one on top of another, when there came a
soft tap at the door.

"Come in," said Ishmael, fully expecting to see some of the refractory
boy's friends come to inquire after him.

The door opened and a very young lady, in a gray silk dress, straw hat,
and blue ribbons entered the schoolroom.

Ishmael looked up, gave one glance at the fair, sweet face, serious blue
eyes, and soft light ringlets, and dropped his copy-books, came down from
his seat and hurried to meet the visitor, exclaiming:

"Bee! Oh, dear, dear Bee, I am so glad to see you!"

"So am I you, Ishmael," said Beatrice Middleton, frankly giving her hand
to be shaken.

"Bee! oh, I beg pardon! Miss Middleton I mean! it is such a happiness to
me to see you again!"

"So it is to me to see you, Ishmael," fr