ng any, either, since our time with that one last year. 'Twas a
reg'lar sell! The gal what kep' it asked a nickel a week for every young
'un, and left us right in the middle of a term, 'cause she said it
didn't pay. Stuck-up thing she was, too! Couldn't see nothin' lower'n
the top of her own head, I couldn't abide her! No, if you're thinkin' of
gettin' up any of them kinter-gardens you might as well give it up,"
eying Joyce suspiciously. "We don't want 'em."

"But would you object to a free public school?" asked Joyce with a
patient air.

"Oh, I don't know's I should object," tolerantly. "Rache, she's a great
hand to read, and she takes in a magerzine, too, but I never could see
the sense o' spendin' time and money that way. If she marries she'll hev
to come down to scrubbin' and cookin', and tendin' baby, same's her ma;
and if she's an old maid, why, there's the Works, or goin' out to
housework, and either way I don't see just where an eddication comes
in."

"It might help her to some easier employment," suggested Joyce, but
rather faintly, for the woman's airy loquacity disconcerted her.

"It might, an' then it mightn't. I've seen girls as got above their
business come down a good deal lower than what they started from, and I
say, let well enough alone. There's lots of born ladies that ain't no
softer spoken than my girl Rache, and she's good to me and the young
'uns. I don't want anybody spoilin' my fam'ly by these highfalutin'
notions."

The woman assumed a Cornelia expression that almost daunted poor Joyce,
who was half a coward at heart, anyhow, so she meekly rose to go.

"I won't delay you from your washing any longer; good-by," she said,
nodding at the baby, who showed pearly teeth in return; and she passed
out, nor realized until later that she had not posed as a canvasser
here, unless in an educational sense.

She felt just a trifle discouraged by the unflinching attitude of this
Spartan mother, and was proportionately surprised when, obeying a call
to enter at the next door, she stepped into a bright, tastefully
furnished apartment with flowers in the window and magazines on the
table. Near by, in a large invalid chair reclined a girl--nay, a woman,
as Joyce decided after the second look, though a small creature--busily
embroidering upon a little frame, while on a small, detachable table,
now screwed to the arm of her chair, was a bright array of silks, and
beside them a half-open book, with a pencil