My School Day. 63

assurance that everybody had probably forgotten
all about me by this time. Our lessons went on
again as usual; there was no more talk of my going
to school.

The autumn was drawing fast into winter, and
my hours with Miss Churchill were often cut short
by rain or cold. This was the more vexatious to
me, as the time was coming near when my lady must
go away, and without any certain prospect of her
ever coming again. How I grudged every day on
which the weather prevented our meeting, and with
what redoubled zeal did I learn the lessons that she
set for me, often bringing her a whole hymn or
column of spelling, when but half had been marked
forme. Once, soon after she had given me a Bible
of my own, I surprised her by repeating the whole
parable of the Prodigal Son; no slight task for me,
for I was slow at learning by heart, especially when
there was neither rhyme nor swing of verse to help
my memory. She seemed sorry to be obliged to
leave her pupil; and as for me, I dared not think
what I should do without her.

One afternoon, when it wanted but three days of
the day she was to lcave, Miss Churchill said to
me, “ Reuben, I have found a way at last for you to
go on with your Icarning after I am gone. No, I
will not bid you go to school again,” she added,