nd, not the first;
A higher Hand must make her mild,
If all be not in vain, and guide
Her footsteps, moving side by side,
With wisdom; like the younger child,
For she is earthly of the mind,
But knowledge heavenly of the soul.--In Memoriam.

Etheldred had not answered her sister, but she did not feel at all
secure that she should have anything to be thankful for, even if the
school were built.

The invasion of Cocksmoor was not only interference with her own field
of action, but it was dangerous to the improvement of her scholars.
Since the departure of Mr. Wilmot, matters at Stoneborough National
School had not improved, though the Misses Anderson talked a great deal
about progress, science, and lectures.

The Ladies' Committee were constantly at war with the mistresses, and
that one was a veteran who endured them, or whom they could endure
beyond her first half-year. No mistress had stayed a year within the
memory of any girl now at school. Perpetual change prevented any real
education, and, as each lady held different opinions and proscribed all
books not agreeing thereto, everything "dogmatical" was excluded; and,
as Ethel said, the children learned nothing but facts about lions and
steam-engines, while their doctrine varied with that of the visitor for
the week. If the ten generals could only have given up to Miltiades,
but, alas! there was no Miltiades. Mr. Ramsden's health was failing,
and his neglect told upon the parish in the dreadful evils reigning
unchecked, and engulfing many a child whom more influential teaching
might have saved. Mental arithmetic, and the rivers of Africa, had
little power to strengthen the soul against temptation.

The scanty attendance at the National School attested the indifference
with which it was regarded, and the borderers voluntarily patronised
Cherry Elwood, and thus had, perhaps, first aroused the emulation that
led Mrs. Ledwich on a visit of inspection, to what she chose to consider
as an offshoot of the National School.

The next day she called upon the Misses May. It was well that Ethel was
not at home. Margaret received the lady's horrors at the sight of the
mere crowded cottage kitchen, the stupid untrained mistress, without an
idea of method, and that impertinent woman, her mother! Miss Flora and
Miss Ethel must have had a great deal to undergo, and she would lose no
time in convening the Ladies' Committee, and appointing a successo