lesson, having selected and rejected a great many
parables and incidents both in the New and Old Testaments, and was even
now doubtful what they should begin to read.

The sight of the books reminded Geordie of his pocket compendium of
knowledge, and coming to the table he laid the dog-eared "Third Primer"
in Grace's hand, saying, "I've been once through, but I'm thinkin' I've
maybe forgot it some. I doubt Jean doesna know one letter from another,
though I've whiles tried to make her understand," added Geordie, rather
ruefully, as he glanced towards the smiling little maiden, who sat quite
unabashed at this account of her ignorance.

Grace was rather taken aback by the sight of the spelling-book, and also
by Geordie's statement as to the amount of his knowledge, though it was
the same as he had made at their first interview. Grace, however, in her
eagerness, had not understood its full import, so she gasped out in
some dismay, "But you can read the Bible a little, can you not,
Geordie?"

"Maybe I might, if I tried," replied Geordie, in a hopeful tone. "They
were just goin' to put me into the Bible when I left the school. I have
heard them reading out some of the stories, and I thought they wouldn't
be that difficult to spell out. Maybe if I read in the primer for a
while, ye'll put me into the Bible," he added, evidently having a strong
idea of the necessity for a good foundation of spelling-book lore before
proceeding to use it.

But Grace thought ruefully of all her high-flown plans for this Sunday
class, and felt that it was a terrible descent to be restricted to the
"Third Primer." But Geordie seemed convinced that through this dog-eared
volume lay the only royal road to learning. He had already opened the
book at one of the little lessons near the end which he seemed to think
he had not sufficiently mastered in the "schoolin' days" already far
away in the distance to the little herd-boy. He still stood by Grace's
side at the table, and his finger travelled slowly along the page as he
read, in the nasal sing-song tone in which the reading functions were
performed at the parish school, one of those meaningless little
paragraphs that are supposed to be best adapted by the compilers of
primers for teaching the young idea how to shoot.

Grace sat listening, rather perplexed as to what course it would be best
to pursue. This certainly was not the kind of ideal Sunday-class which
she had in her mind all these months;