nd always got his own will in the end. Wonderful
man!" he pondered, returning towards his work.

Suddenly the side door opened, and Mrs. Iden just peered out, and cried,
"Put your hat and scarf on directly."

Amaryllis put the hat on, and wound the scarf very loosely about her
neck. She accompanied her father to the potato patch, hoping that he
would go on talking, but he was quickly absorbed in the potatoes. She
watched him stooping till his back was an arch; in fact, he had stooped
so much that now he could not stand upright, though still in the prime
of life; if he stood up and stretched himself, still his back was bowed
at the shoulders. He worked so hard--ever since she could remember she
had seen him working like this; he was up in the morning while it was
yet dark tending the cattle; sometimes he was up all night with them,
wind or weather made no difference. Other people stopped indoors if it
rained much, but it made no difference to her father, nor did the deep
snow or the sharp frosts. Always at work, and he could talk so cleverly,
too, and knew everything, and yet they were so short of money. How could
this be?

What a fallacy it is that hard work is the making of money; I could show
you plenty of men who have worked the whole of their lives as hard as
ever could possibly be, and who are still as far off independence as
when they began. In fact, that is the rule; the winning of independence
is rarely the result of work, else nine out of ten would be well-to-do.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER II.

PRESENTLY Amaryllis wandered indoors, and was met in the hall by her
mother.

"What has he been talking to you about?" she said, angrily. "Don't
listen to him. He will never do any good. Just look at his coat; it's a
disgrace, a positive disgrace. Telling you about the old people? What's
the use of talking of people who have been dead all this time? Why
doesn't he do something himself? Don't listen to his rubbish--wasting
his time there with potatoes, it is enough to make one wild! Why doesn't
he go in to market and buy and sell cattle, and turn over money in that
way? Not he! he'd rather muddle with a few paltry potatoes, as if it
mattered an atom how they were stuck in the ground."

Not liking to hear her father abused, Amaryllis went upstairs, and when
she was alone lifted her skirt and looked at the ankles which
great-uncle Richard had admired. Other girls had told her they were
thick, and she w