d the 'Surrender of Cornwallis', and
it was just fine."

Father and Sam and the hired man came in. The two children straggled
along, and Helen had to wash them, but presently they were all ranged
about the table.

"Well, how did it go?" Uncle Jason asked, looking up as Helen finally
took her place after doing Aunt Jane's bidding several times.

"Oh, it was splendid!" A thrill of delight swept over Helen as she met
the good-humored eyes. "And I have a diploma."

"And did you carry the house by storm, or did you forget two lines in
the most important place?" asked Sam, mischievously. "Dan Erlick is
going to the High School in the fall. Are you?"

"O, I wish I could," cried Helen, eagerly, with a beseeching glance at
her uncle. Occasionally he did decide matters.

"Well, I declare!" Aunt Jane threw back her head with her fork poised
half way to her mouth, "And I dare say you'd like to go over to Europe,
too!"

"I just should," said Helen with a good natured accent. "There are a
great many things I should like to do."

"Where's the money coming from to do 'em?"

"I hope to earn it. I should like to teach, and Mr. Warfield thinks I
ought."

"And follow in your father's steps."

Helen's face was scarlet.

"You just won't go to any High School, I can tell you," began her aunt
in an arbitrary tone. "You'd look fine walking in three mile and out
again every day. Who'd keep you in shoes? Or did you think you'd take
the horse and wagon? You're learning enough for the kind of life you're
likely to lead, and there are other things to do."

"And I'll tell you one of them, Nell," said Jenny with a rough comfort
in her tone. "There will be three vacancies in the factory come
September, and you better take one of them. Now I haven't been there but
little more than two years, and take up my twelve dollars every two
weeks. The work isn't hard. I almost think I'm a fool to get married
quite so soon, only Joe does need a housekeeper, and will have the house
all fixed up--and doesn't want to wait;" laughingly.

"Joe's a nice fellow," said her mother, "and well to do. And you didn't
go to any High School, either."

Mrs. Mulford took great pride in her daughter's prospects, though when
Joe Northrup first began to "wait on her," she said: "I don't see how
you'll ever get along with old lady Northrup, and Joe won't leave his
mother."

"I aint in any hurry," returned Jenny. "Joe's a good catch and worth
waiting for."

In M