sed by my appreciation of
his extraordinary patience.

'You must think me a perfect fool!' I exclaimed, unguardedly.

'No,' replied my imperturbable companion, 'I consider you a very fair
average.'

I bit my lip in anger at myself, and turned assiduously to my slate and
pencil.

'You will take that for next time,' said my preceptor, rising at the end
of an hour, and calling my attention to a portion that he had marked in
pencil, 'when I shall be more particular about your recitations. Good
evening.'

'Very romantic,' thought I, as I walked rather discontentedly into the
sitting room, and I wondered what sort of stuff Mr. Summers was made of.
I began to be afraid that I might be piqued into flirting with him.

He seemed to have the talent, though, of winning golden opinions from
all sorts of people. Mr. Bull pronounced him 'a cute chap,' and 'real
clever, too,' for he did not consider the terms synonymous. Mrs. Bull
said that he was just the right person in the right place; and Miss
Friggs declared that he was 'a young man among a thousand.' Not at
Peppersville, certainly, for there were but five others in the place;
but, to use the phraseology most in vogue there, they could not hold a
candle to him.

That quiet, overgrown girl, with her faultless recitations and steady
pursuance of one idea, interested me exceedingly, and I determined to
find out her history. I spoke of her to Mr. Summers, and he replied:

'Oh, yes; Helen Legram is quite an original. 'Born of poor, but
respectable parents,' I have little doubt that she will turn out like
the heroes of all biographies that commence in a similar manner. Her
father is a very plain farmer, living somewhere among the mountains,
with a large family to provide for; and Helen, in consequence, has
hitherto enjoyed no advantages in the way of education beyond those
obtained from an occasional quarter at the district school. In the
intervals she had to wash, bake, mend, and make, with untiring industry,
with short snatches of reading, her only indulgence; until, last summer,
a relative, well to do in the world, spent some months at the mountain
farm, and presented Helen with the means of obtaining her heart's
desire--a thorough education. To that end she is now assiduously
devoting herself in the spirit of Milton, who 'cared not how late he
came into life, only that he came fit.' Helen Legram is a plain,
unformed country girl; but she has those three handmaids of talent