that had hair curiously plaited in the centre,
surrounded by black and white enamel, and all framed in gold.

She lifted her eyes from the book she was reading to see a spare little
figure coming up the garden walk.

"Good evening, little maid," she said pleasantly, "was there something
you wished to say to me?"

[Illustration: "'GOOD EVENING, LITTLE MAID,' SHE SAID, PLEASANTLY."]

Sally swallowed hard, and scarcely lifting her eyes, she replied, in a
frightened voice:

"Yes, Mistress Kent, I want to get learning."

"That is praiseworthy," said Mistress Maria, "and have any arrangements
been made by which you can enter upon the duties and privileges of a
youthful scholar?"

Sally had told herself on the way that she must be brave, and so,
scarcely understanding or even knowing what Mistress Kent had said, she
began with a good show of courage for so timid and untaught a child:

"There is no one to help me, Mistress, I must help myself, but I can do
things if I try. I have set my heart on getting learning, which I shall!
I have no money but about fourpence-ha'penny a week for darning
stockings, but I have skill with the needle somewhat. If I could clean,
or weed, or sew, my work should be well done. Could I sew for you or
your mother, Mistress Kent, or do any kind of work that would pay for
learning to read and write and spell? For learn I shall!"

Sally was on the point of crying out loud as she finished her speech, so
very hard had it been for her to make it, yet glad and half surprised
she was, that, without stopping, the whole story had been told.

Mistress Kent was silent for a time after Sally had spoken. She was
thinking to herself:

"This is something new. Here is a little maid ten or eleven years of
age, who, all by herself, has come to my door, saying that learning she
wants and must have, and will gladly pay for it what she can with her
own small hands."

But the Mistress had to be wise and prudent. The children who came to
her school were well taught and well reared, came of proud parents who
paid well for their schooling, and would never let their little people
associate with children of the poorer classes.

They were all well dressed, carefully washed and combed, wore fine
stockings and tasteful shoes, and had high notions already in their own
proud little heads.

So Mistress Kent, who had a good, kind heart under her stiff waist, was
quiet so long a time that Sally raised her eyes and saw