r father as
to their views on the subject of your education. I expect they are
anxious that you two elder ones should go to a good school at once.
And that is one of my greatest difficulties, and the greatest drawback to
your coming here, for there is no good school within reach, and I am
puzzled to know what to do. It is so important that you should have every
advantage now."

Esther's heart sank, for Cousin Charlotte's sake as much as anything.
She knew as well as possible that Cousin Charlotte would have to settle
this matter for herself, and bear the responsibility entirely.
She knew, too, that the importance of it appealed as little to her mother
as it did greatly to her cousin. Mrs. Carroll was one of those
happy-go-lucky persons, so difficult to deal with, who think that
'sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,' and 'the future will take
care of itself,' so what is the use of worrying--something is sure to turn
up, and everything will turn out right, somehow.

It never occurred to her that her four children's future depended almost
entirely on the education given them now; or to ponder what, poor and
ill-educated, their future would be.

"Oh, something will be sure to happen," she would have answered.
"What is the use of planning, no one knows what the future may bring."
Miss Ashe's idea, on the other hand, was that with a good education any
child had, at any rate, one strong weapon with which to fight her way.

At Dorsham the post did not come in until ten o'clock, so that there was
no correspondence to discuss over the breakfast-table. Not that the
children expected any letters; they had never received one in their lives.

Breakfast over, Miss Ashe was a little at a loss to know what to do with
her charges; her life had suddenly become so changed and complicated,
that the little lady had difficulty in grappling with it all at once.
"I think you may like to go out and look about you," she said at last.
"You can come to no harm, I am sure, if you keep away from the river.
You may play in the garden, or wander on the moor a little way. But if
you go beyond the garden, take Guard with you; he will be a companion and
protector. Don't go very far, dears; I want you all to come back at
eleven for some milk and biscuits."

The children were enchanted. This was a happy life indeed! As quickly as
ever they could they got on hats and boots and started. They had never a
doubt as to where they would go.