riginal condition, smooth, fresh, and unsullied.

Mary Bell and Bella looked at the desk which Mary Erskine had prepared
for them, and liked it very much indeed.

"But where are _you_ going to study?" asked Mary Bell.

"I shall study at my work-table, but not now. I can't study until the
evening. I have my work to do, all the day, and so I shall not begin
my studies until the evening when you children are all gone to bed.
And besides, there is only one pen."

"Oh, but you will not want the pen," said Mary Bell. "You are going to
learn to read."

"No," said Mary Erskine. "I am going to learn to write first."

"Not _first_," said Mary Bell. "We always learn to _read_,
before we learn to write."

"But I am going to learn to write first," said Mary Erskine. "I have
been thinking about it, and I think that will be best. I have got
the plan all formed. I shall want you to set me a copy, and then this
evening I shall write it."

"Well," said Mary Bell, "I will. The first copy must be straight
marks."

"No," said Mary Erskine, "the first thing is to learn to write my
name. I shall never have any occasion to write straight marks, but I
shall want to write my name a great many times."

"Oh, but you can't _begin_ with writing your name," said Mary
Bell.

"Yes," said Mary Erskine, "I am going to begin with _Mary_: only
_Mary_. I want you to write me two copies, one with the letters
all separate, and the other with the letters together.

"Well," said Mary Bell, "I will." So she sat down to her desk, taking
up her pen, she dipped it into the inkstand. The inkstand had been
placed into the chair which Mary Bell's end of the ironing-board
rested upon. It could not stand safely on the board itself as that was
sloping.

Mary Bell wrote the letters M--A--R--Y, in a large plain hand upon
the top of the paper, and then in a same line she wrote them again,
joining them together in a word. Mary Erskine stood by while she
wrote, examining very attentively her method of doing the work, and
especially her way of holding the pen. When the copy was finished,
Mary Erskine cut it off from the top of the paper and pinned it up
against the side of the room, where she could look at it and study the
names of the letters in the intervals of her work during the day.

"There," said she in a tone of satisfaction when this was done. "I
have got my work before me. The next thing is to give Bella hers."

It was decided that Bella should pur