g with them,--trying to bite them, and jingling them
together.

"Now," said Mary Erskine to the children, as they were sitting at the
table, at the close of the breakfast, and after Thomas had gone away,
"you may go out and play for an hour while I finish my morning work,
and put the baby to sleep, and then I want you to come in and have a
school."

"Who shall be the teacher?" said Mary Bell.

"You shall be _one_," said Mary Erskine.

"Are you going to have two teachers?" asked Mary Bell. "If you do,
then we can't have any scholars;--for the baby is not old enough to go
to school."

"I know it," said Mary Erskine, "but we can have three scholars
without him."

"Who shall they be?" asked Mary Bell.

"You and I, and Bella," answered Mary Erskine. "I will tell you what
my plan is. I expect that I shall conclude to stay here, and live in
this house alone for some years to come, and the children can not go
to school, for there is now nobody to take them, and it is too far for
them to go alone. I must teach them myself at home, or else they can
not learn. I am very sorry indeed now that I did not learn to read and
write when I was a child: for that would have saved me the time and
trouble of learning now. But I think I _can_ learn now. Don't you
think I can, Mary?"

"Oh, yes, indeed," said Mary Bell, "I am sure you can. It is very easy
to read."

"I am going to try," continued Mary Erskine, "and so I want you to
teach me. And while you are teaching me, Bella may as well begin at
the same time. So that you will have two scholars."

"Three--you said three scholars," rejoined Mary Bell.

"Yes," said Mary Erskine. "You shall be the third scholar. I am going
to teach you to draw."

"Do you know how to draw?" asked Mary Bell, surprised.

"No," said Mary Erskine, "but I can show _you_ how to learn."

"Well," said Mary Bell, "I should like to learn to draw very much
indeed. Though I don't see how any body can teach a thing unless they
can do it themselves."

"Sometimes they can," said Mary Erskine. "A man may teach a horse to
canter, without being able to canter himself."

Mary Bell laughed at the idea of a man attempting to canter, and said
that she should be very glad to try to learn to draw. Mary Erskine
then said that after they had finished their breakfast the children
might go out an hour to walk and play, and that then when they should
come in, they would find every thing ready for the school.

Mary Bel