first-rate;" but the poor teacher was
standing still. Week passed after week, and each Saturday
night found him where he was the last. He had less time than
on the farm. Fresh from the plough, he could now and then
snatch a half hour of study to some purpose; there was no
"fresh from the school." Besides all which, he still found
himself or fancied himself needed by his father, and whenever
a pinch of work called for it he could not hold back his hand.

"How does it go, Winthrop?" said his mother when she saw him
wearily sitting down one summer night.

"It doesn't go at all, mother."

"I was afraid that it would be so."

"How does what go?" said Asahel.

"The school."

"_How_ does it go?"

"Upon my head; and I am tired of carrying it."

"Don't you like being school-teacher?"

"No."

"_I_ do," said Asahel.

"I wouldn't stay in it, Winthrop," said his mother.

"I will not mamma, -- only till winter. I'll manage it so long."

Eight months this experiment was tried, and then Winthrop came
back to the farm. Eight months thrown away! he sadly said to
himself. He was doubly needed at home now, for Mr. Landholm
had again been elected to the Legislature; and one of the
first uses of Winthrop's freedom was to go with his father to
Vantassel and drive the wagon home again.

One thing was gained by this journey. In Vantassel, Winthrop
contrived to possess himself of a Greek lexicon and a Graeca
Majora, and also a Greek grammar, though the only one he could
get that suited his purse was the Westminster grammar, in
which the alternatives of Greek were all Latin. _That_ did not
stagger him. He came home rich in his classical library, and
very resolved to do something for himself this winter.

The day after his return from Vantassel, just as they had done
supper, there was a knock at the front door. Winthrop went to
open it. There he found a man, tall and personable, well-
dressed though like a traveller, with a little leathern valise
in his hand. Winthrop had hardly time to think he did not look
like an American, when his speech confirmed it.

"How-do-you-do?" he said, using each word with a ceremony
which shewed they were not denizens of his tongue. "I am
wanting to make some reserche in dis country, and I was
directet here."

Winthrop asked him in, and then when he was seated, asked him
what he wanted.

"I am wishing to know if you could let me live wiz you a few
days -- I am wanting to be busy in your mo