ts of discarded blackboards, old but
still useful maps, song-books, tools, many essentials to her
undertaking, arrived at odd times on the river boat. Nor could she have
kept always well and strong, neatly dressed and abundantly fed, had it
not been for her mother's presence. Aunt Maggie, as Mrs. Williams was
called, while not as energetic as her daughter was a capable woman who
contributed her full part to the school's success. She earned more at
laundry-work than Ellen could at teaching; and the two, by selling eggs
and chickens and pork, by making jellies and candies for the hotel
people four miles away whose laundry more than anything else kept them
in funds, lived in decent comfort and put by for the future.

The second change that came to Merryvale dropped upon the great house.
Five years after the Williams' advent, Lee Merryvale, only son of an
only son, came back from college. He had made but two brief visits home
since he had left to take up his freshman work, offering the expense of
the trip as his excuse; and while his father missed him more with each
year of slackened strength, he confessed that Lee made small demands
upon his purse. He would write in affectionate and wondering solicitude
that no land need slip from the estate to be converted into bank-checks,
and would receive answer from his son that the college had given him a
scholarship and that he worked in the summer months. It was wisest not
to question but to wait until Lee returned to take up law, the
traditional Merryvale profession.

With long explanations, with pacing up and down what remained of the old
plantation, Lee Merryvale expounded to his father his ambition to become
a grower of vegetables and fruits. In his summer months, it seemed, he
had earned his way sweating on other men's farms, and he returned eager
to bring life and prosperity to the old place. Other people were making
money in his state, northerners of course, and why not he? He knew the
secret of northern success--the careful oversight of workers and the
willingness to pitch in and do things yourself. What if frost did come
every few years and destroy all you had? You made allowance for that in
your years of plenty. And so he argued, answering expressed doubts and
unexpressed questionings, until at length his father answered: "How
should I object when it will keep you by my side? You have your mother's
energy."

Lee had only a few recollections of his mother, but one was a