I'm not so afraid as I was, and I have more sense.
And I know things more evenly than I did. I can write now quite well,
and I know most of the tables, though division does bother me. And I can
spell all but the very difficult words. I don't think any one would
laugh at me now."

"No, they wouldn't," he answered decisively.

"I shouldn't like little boys, but I wouldn't mind them as big as
Bentley. And, oh, I wish we had a swing. And they have a real sailors'
hammock, such as they have on shipboard. It's delightful under the
trees."

"I think we can manage that."

"Well, if your head isn't tousled!" cried Elizabeth. "It looks like a
brush heap. Get it fixed, for supper is all ready. Why didn't you stay?"
the last ironically.

"Cousin Chilian thought I had better not. They did want me to."

"Are you sure they _wanted_ you to?"

"Why, yes," she answered in ignorance of the sarcasm.

She walked up and down the garden path with Cousin Chilian and asked
about the school, was glad when she found Bella and her sister Alice
went there. Now and then she gave two or three skips and pulled on the
hand she held so tightly. He had never seen her in quite such glee, and
how charming she was!

"Chilian, bring that child in out of the dew. Next thing she'll be in
for a winter's cold," said the severe voice.

The interview with Madam Torrey was very satisfactory. Chilian asked
Miss Winn to go out and buy what was needed and get it made. They went
over to Mrs. Turner's one day and took the school in on their way.

"When it rains Silas can take you and come for you. I think the walk
will not tire you out."

"Oh, no; I don't get tired out now."

It was Miss Winn's place to look after the child, of course, but
Elizabeth felt in some way defrauded. She wished Cynthia had been poor
and dependent upon them. Then she would stand a chance to be brought up
in a useful manner.

Chilian took her to school the first morning. Miss Winn was to come for
her. She had been rather shy at first. But Bella Turner told the girls
about her, how she had been born in Salem, and gone to Calcutta when
only a few months old, come and gone again in her father's ship, and he
was Captain Leverett, and then returned to America. He was to come
afterward, but he had died. And Mr. Chilian Leverett, who was something
in Harvard College, was her guardian. And she was to have ever so much
money when she was a young lady.

Any other child might have been