ight only hear this! And Miss
Prudence _knew_.

"I thought I had to go to a city school, else I couldn't be refined and
lady-like," said Linnet.

"That does not follow. All city girls are not refined and lady-like; they
may have a style that you haven't, but that style is not always to their
advantage. It is true that I do not find many young ladies in your little
village that I wish you to take as models, but the fault is in them, as
well as in some of their surroundings. You have music, you have books,
you have perfection of beauty in shore and sea, you have the Holy Spirit,
the Educator of mankind."

The girls were awed and silent.

"I have been shocked at the rudeness of city girls, and I have been
charmed with the tact and courtesy of more than one country maiden.
Nowadays education and the truest culture may be had everywhere."

"Even in Middlefield," laughed Marjorie her heart brimming over with the
thought that, after all, she might be as truly a lady as Helen Rheid.

If Linnet had been as excited as Marjorie was, at that moment, she would
have given a bound into the grass and danced all around. But Marjorie
only sat still trembling with a flush in eyes and cheeks.

"I think I'll keep a list of the books I read," decided Marjorie after a
quiet moment.

"That's a good plan. I'll show you a list I made in my girlhood, some
day. But you mustn't read as many as an Englishman read,--Thomas Henry
Buckle,--his library comprised twenty-two thousand."

"He didn't read them _all,_" cried Linnet.

"He read parts of all, and some attentively, I dare say. He was a rapid
reader and had the rare faculty of being able to seize on what he needed
to use. He often read three volumes a day. But I don't advise you to copy
him. I want you to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. He could
absorb, but, we'll take it for granted that you must plod on steadily,
step by step. He read through Johnson's Dictionary to enlarge his
vocabulary."

"Vocabulary!" repeated Linnet.

"His stock of words," exclaimed Marjorie. "Miss Prudence!" with a new
energy in her voice, "I'm going to read Webster through."

"Well," smiled Miss Prudence.

"Don't you believe I _can?_"

"Oh, yes."

"Then I will. I'll be like Buckle in one thing. I'll plan to read so many
pages a day. We've got a splendid one; mother got it by getting
subscriptions to some paper. Mother will do _anything_ to help us on,
Miss Prudence."

"I have learned that. I