r time in making marks on paper! I believe in girls goin' to school,
and gettin' all they can there; but when school is done, then they have
something else to see to. I'd rather have you raakin' quilts and
gettin' ready to be married; dom' women's work."

"I do my work," said Lois gaily.

"Child, your head's gettin' turned. Mother, do you know the way Madge
and Lois are goin' on?"

"I don't understand it," said Mrs. Armadale.

"I understand it. And I'll tell you. I like learning,--nobody better;
but I want things kept in their places. And I tell you, if this is let
to go on, it'll be like Jack's bean vine, and not stop at the top of
the house; and they'll be like Jack, and go after to see, and never
come back to common ground any more."

Mrs. Armadale sat looking unenlightened. Madge, who had come in midway
of this speech, stood indignant.

"Aunt Anne, that's not like you! You read as much yourself as ever you
can; and never can get books enough."

"I stick to English."

"English or French, what's the odds?"

"What was good enough for your fathers and mothers ought to be good
enough for you."

"That won't do, aunt Anne," retorted Madge. "You were wanting a
Berkshire pig a while ago, and I heard you talking of 'shorthorns.'"

"That's it. I'd like to hear you talking of shorthorns."

"If it is necessary, I could," said Lois; "but there are pleasanter
things to talk about."

"There you are! But pictures won't help Madge make butter; and French
is no use in a garden. It's all very well for some people, I suppose;
but, mother, if these girls go on, they'll be all spoiled for their
place in life. This lodger of yours is trying to make 'em like herself."

"I wish she could!" said Madge.

"That's it, mother; that's what I say. But she's one thing, and they're
another; she lives in her world, which ain't Shampuashuh by a long
jump, and they live in Shampuashuh, and have got to live there. Ain't
it a pity to get their heads so filled with the other things that
they'll be for ever out o' conceit o' their own?"

"It don't work so, aunt Anne," said Lois.

"It will work so. What use can all these krinkum-krankums be to you?
Shampuashuh ain't the place for 'em. You'll be like the girl that got a
new bonnet, and had to sit with her head out o' window to wear it."

Madge's cheeks grew red. Lois laughed.

"Daughter," said Mrs. Armadale, "'seems to me you are making a storm in
a teapot."

Mrs. Marx laughed at tha