ve made an agreement with Mr.
Jones to pay him so much to take you as a sort of apprentices for the
next nine months. In the evening we will all work together at Spanish.
It will be hard work; but if you want to be of any real use to me, it
is absolutely necessary that you should be able to use a spade and to do
rough carpentering. As the time draws on, too, I shall ask one of the
farmers near to let you go out with his men and get some notion of
ploughing. Well, what do you say to all that?'

Hubert looked a little downcast at this recital of the preparatory work
to be gone through, but Charley said at once, 'It sounds rather hard,
papa, but, as you say, we shall have to work hard out there, and it is
much better to accustom one's self to it at once; besides, of course, we
should be of no use at all to you unless we knew something about work.'

'And what are we to learn, mamma?' Maud asked.

'Not a very great deal, my dear,' Mrs. Hardy said. 'Spanish to begin
with, then cooking. I shall teach you, at any rate, to make simple
dishes and puddings, and to boil vegetables properly. I shall myself
practise until I am perfect, and then I shall teach you. Besides that,
it will be as well for you to learn to attend to poultry; and that is
all I know of at present, except that you must both take pains to
improve yourselves at sewing. We shall have to make everything for
ourselves out there.'

'I suppose we shan't do any more regular lessons, mamma?'

'Indeed you will, Maud. You do not imagine that your education is
finished, do you? and you cannot wish to grow almost as ignorant as the
poor Indians of the country. You will give up the piano, and learn
Spanish instead of French, but that will be all the difference; and I
shall expect you both to make as much progress as possible, because,
although I shall take you both out there, and shall teach you whenever I
find time, your lessons must of necessity be short and irregular. And
now you can all go out into the garden and talk the matter over.'

'But you have not told us yet where we are going to, papa,' Charley
said.

'We are going to farm upon the banks of one of the great South American
rivers,--probably the Parana, in the Argentine Republic.'

Mr. and Mrs. Hardy watched their children from the window. They went out
in a group to the summer-house in the corner of the garden, all talking
excitedly. Then Maud ran back again to the house, and in a minute or two
returned