d the whole family, and Mr. Spink introduced them in
order to the ladies--his wife, Lucinda, his oldest daughter, Susanna,
then Elmira, Robert and Jonathan.

Mart Spink invited the ladies to be seated, and they sat down on
splint-bottom chairs.

Viola LeMonde opened the business in hand: "Mr. Spink, some of us
living in the bottoms, knowing that you dwell so far away from any
church that you and your neighbors cannot well attend public religious
services, have decided to start a Sunday School in this locality, if we
can find a suitable place, and if the people are willing to come to it.

"Not long ago Rev. John Larkin, whom perhaps you have seen, suggested
your house as the best place in these hills in which to begin a school.
What do you say to the proposition?"

Mart Spink replied: "Well, I was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and
lived thar with my parents till I was eight years old. I went to school
thar and learned how to read and write a little. I also went to church
and Sunday School some.

"Then they took up land here in de backwoods, and since that time I
have had mighty little chance to larn out of books and to go to
meetin'.

"Yes, I would be rale glad to have you start a school in my house, if
Lucinda is willin'. What do you say, wife?"

Lucinda: "Let us have de school by all means; de sooner de better. I
want it for your sake, Mart, and mine, but specially for our boys and
girls."

So the consent was given and the matter settled.

Susanna Spink, the oldest child, sat opposite Viola LeMonde during the
conversation. She was fourteen years old, and was of such striking
beauty that both the visitors were impressed by it. Her chief
attraction was her eyes. Once seen they could never be forgotten. The
eyebrows were dark and of medium size. The lashes were black and long.
Her eyes were large, clear, deep blue in color. One could look down
into their wondrous depths and imagine one could see the very soul of
the child.

Susanna was all attention during the talk about the school. She spoke
no word, but the look of her eyes spoke volumes to Viola. She knew that
the child was intensely interested in the project. That hour by an
invisible and mysterious power the souls of the woman and child were
welded together into a union of friendship and devotion which death
itself could not part. Neither suspected at this time what a test of
this devotion was to appear in the future.

Highly pleased with the success o