he wheel. But then replacing them before the wagon had
time to move --

"Where's Will?"

"Will? he's at Little River --doing well, as I hear."

"Doing what? getting himself ready for College yet?"

"Yes -- he isn't ready yet."

"I say, neighbour, -- it takes a power of time to get these
fellows ready to begin, don't it?"

"Yes," said Mr. Landholm with a sigh.

"After they're gone you calculate to do all the work yourself,
I s'pose?"

"O I've only lost one yet," said Mr. Landholm shaking the
reins; "and he'll help take care of me by and by, I expect. --
Come!"

Again the other's hands slipped off the wheel, and again were
put back.

"We're goin' to do without larnin' here," said he. "Lost our
schoolmaster."

"That fellow Dolts gone?"

"Last week."

"What's the matter?"

"The place and him didn't fit somewheres, I s'pose; at least I
don't know what 'twas if 'twa'n't that."

"What are you going to do?"

"Play marbles, I guess, -- till some one comes along."

"Well, my hands 'll be too cold to play marbles, if I sit here
much longer," said Mr. Landholm laughing. "Good day to ye!"

And the wheel unclogged, they drove on.

CHAPTER VI.

To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write
and read comes by nature.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

Little could be done in the winter. The days were short and
full of employment; all the more for Will's absence. What with
threshing wheat and oats, foddering cattle, and dressing flax,
driving to mill, cutting wood, and clearing snow, there was no
time for Virgil during the few hours of daylight; hardly time
to repeat a Latin verb. The evenings were long and bright, and
the kitchen cosy. But there were axe-helves to dress out, and
oars, and ox-yokes; and corn to shell, and hemp to hackle; and
at which ever corner of the fireplace Winthrop might set
himself down, a pair of little feet would come pattering round
him, and petitions, soft but strong, to cut an apple, or to
play jackstraws, or to crack hickory nuts, or to roast
chestnuts, were sure to be preferred; and if none of these, or
if these were put off, there was still too much of that sweet
companionship to suit with the rough road to learning. Winnie
was rarely put off, and never rejected. And the little garret
room used by Winthrop and Will when the latter was at home,
and now by Winthrop alone, was too freezing cold when he went
up to bed to allow him more than a snatch at his longed-