198 Turnaside Cottage.

 

expected treat. That a gentleman should drop as
if from the sky, and, most of all, Mr. George, she
could quite understand ; but that a lady should
come without a word of warning, and nothing but
a cold knuckle in the house, and no butcher’s shop
in the village—it was too bad. However, the cold
knuckle did wonders ; and I was able to make all
smooth by complimenting Mrs. Howells on her
success.

I did wish that I could find some good excuse
for giving my children a holiday that afternoon.
Our guests stayed, however, till after four o’clock ;
and I walked beside them part of the way back.
They have promised to come again, when Mr.
George returns to England.

I have hardly spoken of the school, and yet it
fills a very large portion of my life and thoughts.
When first I came I had thirty children, and now I
have nearly seventy ; and the number is still in-
creasing, for they are beginning to come from other
parishes. The first time that I read prayers with
my charge gathered round me, although I was full
of solemn thoughts and hopes of guidance and
blessing, yet the memory of that one day spent at
school in my childhood, with its absurd and, to me,
terrible close, rose vividly before me; and I deter-
mined that the children given into my charge should