st. But
I would like the girls to have a piano, they both play so well on the
melodeon! I would like them to be--well, like you, Miss Prudence, and not
like their rough, hardworking old mother. I've shed tears enough about
their education, and told the Lord about it times enough. If the Boston
plan didn't suit, we had another, Graham and I--he always listens and
depends upon my judgment. I'm afraid, sometimes, I depend upon my own
judgment more than upon the Lord's wisdom. But this plan was--" the
knitting needle was being pushed vigorously through her back hair now,
"to exchange the farm for a house and lot in town--Middlefield is quite a
town, you know--and he was to go back to his trade, and I was to take
boarders, and the girls were to take turns in schooling and
accomplishments. I am not over young myself, and he isn't over strong,
but we had decided on that. I shed some tears over it, and he looked pale
and couldn't sleep, for we've counted on this place as the home of our
old age which isn't so far off as it was when he put that twenty-five
hundred dollars into that bank. But I do breathe freer if I think we may
have this place to live and die on, small as it is and the poor living it
gives us. Father's place isn't much to speak of, and James will come in
for his share of that, so we haven't much to count on anywhere. I don't
know, though," the knitting needle was doing duty in the stocking again,
"about taking _your_ money. You were not his wife, you hadn't spent it or
connived at his knavery."

"I felt myself to be his wife--I am happier in making all the reparation
in my power. All I could do for one old lady was to place her in The Old
Ladies' Home. I know very few of the instances; I would not harrow my
soul with hearing of those I could not help. I have done very little, but
that little has been my exceeding comfort."

"I guess so," said Mrs. West, in a husky voice. "I'll tell father what
you say, we'll talk it over and see. I know you love my girls--especially
Marjorie."

"I love them both," was the quick reply.

"Linnet is older, she ought to have the first chance."

Miss Prudence thought, but did not say, "As Laban said about Leah," she
only said, "I do not object to that. We do Marjorie no injustice. This is
Linnet's schooltime. There does seem to be a justice in giving the first
chance to the firstborn, although God chose Jacob instead of the elder
Esau, and Joseph instead of his older brethren, a