re in the place, and he made
answer that the little ones went in to Dame Verdon, but she didn't make
much of it, not since she had had the shaking palsy, and she could not
give the lads the stick. He thought of sending his biggest lad to
school at Poppleby next spring, but 'twas a long way, and his good woman
didn't half like it, not unless there was some one going the same way.

Betty Pucklechurch's account amounted to much the same. "Dame Verdon
had had the school nigh about forty years. She had taught them all to
read their Testament, all as stayed long enough, for there was plenty
for the children to do; and folks said she wasn't up to hitting them as
she used to be."

Farmer Goodenough, the churchwarden, who came to see Captain Carbonel
about the letting of a field which was mixed up with the Greenhow
property, gave something of the like character. "She is getting old,
certain sure, but she is a deserving woman, and she keeps off the
parish."

"But can she teach the children?"

"She can teach them all they need to know, and keep the little ones out
of mischief," said the farmer, perhaps beginning to be alarmed. "No use
to learn them no more. What do they want of it for working in the
fields or milking the cows?"

"They ought at least to know their duty to God and their neighbour,"
said Captain Carbonel. "Is there no Sunday School?"

"No, sir,"--very bluntly. "I hear talk of such things at Poppleby and
the like," he added, "but we don't want none of them here. The lot here
are quite bad enough, without maggots being put into their heads."

Captain Carbonel did not wish to continue the subject. The farmer's own
accent did not greatly betoken acquaintance with schools of any sort.

Of course the wife and sister were amused as well as saddened by his
imitative account of the farmer's last speech, but they meant to study
the subject on their first Sunday. They had learnt already that Uphill
Priors was a daughter church to Downhill Priors, and had only one
service on a Sunday, alternate mornings and evenings. The vicar was the
head of a house at Oxford, and only came to the parsonage in the summer.
The services were provided for by a curate, living at Downhill, with
the assistance of the master of a private school, to whom the vicarage
was let. When Captain Carbonel asked Master Pucklechurch about the
time, he answered, "Well, sir, 'tis morning churching. So it will be
half-past ten, or else eleven