on the dresser; the firelight shone
on the gleaming pewter and brass utensils, and a great tabby cat sat
purring on the elbow of Nathaniel's chair. I thought he seemed a little
confused at my entrance, for he got up rather awkwardly and shuffled his
papers together, so I took pity on his embarrassment, and only spoke to
Mrs. Barton.

She took me into the little outer kitchen to show me where she did her
cooking, and I asked her in a low voice what he was studying.

'He does a little of everything,' she said, with a sort of suppressed
pride in her voice. 'Sometimes it is history, and oftener summing; he
will have it that a man cannot have too much learning, and that he wants
to improve himself; he is always fretting because he never had a chance
when he was young, all along of his having to work when his poor father
died, and so he is all for making up for lost time; sometimes Dr.
Hamilton comes in and helps him with the Latin and--what do you call
those figures?'

I suggested mathematics, and she nodded assent.

'Oh, Nat is a sight cleverer already than his master,' she went on. 'I am
thinking that if he goes on learning more and more, that Mr. Roberts will
be taking him into the business some day. Nat is a sort of foreman now,
for his master thinks a deal of Nathaniel, and no wonder, for it is not
only his learning, and his sitting up late, and getting up early in the
winter's morning, and creeping downstairs without his boots so as not
to wake me; for all he is such a good son; but I will say it, that there
is not a young man in these parts that can beat Nat,' finished the little
widow, in a broken voice.

I said I was glad to hear it, for she evidently expected me to say
something; and then I asked how long Dr. Hamilton had given him lessons
in Latin and mathematics. She was only too ready to tell me, and seemed
pleased at my interest.

'Ever since Nat hurt his arm in the railway accident; and I will say that
Dr. Hamilton brought him round in a wonderful way; he found him at his
books one evening, and ordered him off to bed in a hurry; but when he
came next time he had a long talk with Nat, and promised to give him an
hour when he could spare it. Sometimes Nat goes up to Gladwyn, but
oftener Dr. Hamilton drops in here; he has taken a fancy to our kitchen,
he says; but that is his way of putting it. There are plenty of folks who
find fault with the doctor, and say he is not what he ought to be to his
own flesh