chool's wound up."

"You may do as it pleases you, Sally Butson. You may go, if you choose,
and ask Rosewarne to put his foot on your neck. But if you think I make
any terms with 'en, you're mistaken. He've a-driven my Tom from home an'
employ; he've a-cast a good son out o' my sight and knowledge, and fo'ced
'en, for all I know, into wicked courses--for Tom's like his father before
'en; you can lead 'en by a thread, but against ill-usage he'll turn mad.
Will I forgive Rosewarne for this? He may put out the fire in my grate
and fling my bed into the street, and I'll laugh and call it a little
thing; but for what he've a-done to the son of a widow I'll put on him the
curse of a widow, and not all his wrath shall buy it off by an ounce or
shorten it by one inch."

Mrs. Trevarthen--ordinarily a mild-tempered woman--shook with her passion
as an aspen shakes and whitens in the wind. Aunt Butson laid a hand on
her shoulder.

"There--there! Put on the kettle, my dear, and let's have a drink of tea.
It takes a woman different when she've a-got children. But it don't
follow, because I'm a single woman, I can't read a lad's fortune.
You mark my words, Tom'll fall on his feet."

Early next morning Mrs. Butson left the cottage with a small pile of
books, disinterred from the depths of the box which contained all her
belongings--cheap books in gaudy covers of red, blue, and green cloth,
lavishly gilded without, execrably printed within: _The Wide, Wide World;
Caspar; Poor John, or Nature's Gentleman; The Parents' Assistant_.
Her system of education recognised merit, but rewarded it sparingly.
As a rule, she had distributed three prizes per annum, before the
Christmas holidays, and at a total cost of two shillings and sixpence.
To-day she spread out no fewer than ten upon her desk, covering them out
of sight with a duster before her scholars arrived.

A few minutes before nine she heard them at play outside among the elms,
and at nine o'clock punctually called them in to work by ringing her
handbell--the clapper of which (vain extravagance!) had recently been
shortened by the village tinsmith to prevent its wearing the metal
unequally. Five scholars answered its summons--'Thaniel Langmaid, Maudie
Hosken, Ivy Nancarrow, Jane Ann Toy and her four-year-old brother Luke.
Their fathers, one and all, though dwelling in the village, were employed
in trades on the other side of the ferry, and therefore could risk
offending Mr.