owena taught him to read in McGuffey's _Second Reader._ I
knew that Magnus had read this through time and again; but he said he
could learn to speak the words better when Rowena taught him. The fact
was, though, that he was teaching her more than she him; but she never
had a suspicion of this. That evening Magnus came over and brought his
fiddle. Pa Fewkes was quite disappointed when Magnus said he could not
play the _Money Musk_ nor _Turkey in the Straw_, nor the _Devil's
Dream,_ but when he went into one of his musical trances and played
things with no tune to them but with a great deal of harmony, and some
songs that almost made you cry, Rowena sat looking so lost to the world
and dreamy that Magnus was moist about the eyes himself. He shook hands
with all of us when he went away, so as to get the chance to hold
Rowena's hand I guess.

Every day while they were there, Magnus came to see us; but did not act
a bit like a boy who came sparking. He did not ask Rowena to sit up with
him, though I think she expected him to do so; but he talked with her
about Norway, and his folks there, and how lonely it was on his farm,
and of his hopes that one day he would be a well-to-do farmer.

After one got used to her poor clothes, and when she got tamed down a
little on acquaintance and gave a person a chance to look at her, and
especially into her eyes, she was a very pretty girl. She had grown
since I had seen her the summer before, and was fuller of figure. Her
hair was still of that rich dark brown, just the color of her eyes and
eyebrows. She had been a wild girl last summer, but now she was a woman,
with spells of dreaming and times when her feelings were easily hurt.
She still was ready to flare up and fight at the drop of the
hat--because, I suppose, she felt that everybody looked down on her and
her family; but to Magnus and me she was always gentle and sometimes I
thought she was going to talk confidentially to me.

After she had had one of her lessons one evening she said to me, "I
wish I wa'n't so darned infarnal ignorant. I wish I could learn enough
to teach school!"

"We're all ignorant here," I said.

"Magnus ain't," said she. "He went to a big school in the old country.
He showed me the picture of it, and of his father's house. It's got four
stone chimneys."

"I wonder," said I, "if what they learn over there is real learning."

And that ended our confidential talk.

About the time I began wondering how lo