neral," said Moses, with a toss of his
head.

"The way to be great lies through books, now, and not through battles,"
said the minister; "there is more done with pens than swords; so, if you
want to do anything, you must read and study."

"Do you think of giving this boy a liberal education?" said Mr. Sewell
some time later in the evening, after Moses and Mara were gone to bed.

"Depends on the boy," said Zephaniah. "I've been up to Brunswick, and
seen the fellows there in the college. With a good many of 'em, going to
college seems to be just nothing but a sort of ceremony; they go because
they're sent, and don't learn anything more'n they can help. That's what
I call waste of time and money."

"But don't you think Moses shows some taste for reading and study?"

"Pretty well, pretty well!" said Zephaniah; "jist keep him a little
hungry; not let him get all he wants, you see, and he'll bite the
sharper. If I want to catch cod, I don't begin with flingin' over a
barrel o' bait. So with the boys, jist bait 'em with a book here and a
book there, and kind o' let 'em feel their own way, and then, if nothin'
will do but a fellow must go to college, give in to him--that'd be _my_
way."

"And a very good one, too!" said Mr. Sewell. "I'll see if I can't bait
my hook, so as to make Moses take after Latin this winter. I shall have
plenty of time to teach him."

"Now, there's Mara!" said the Captain, his face becoming phosphorescent
with a sort of mild radiance of pleasure as it usually was when he spoke
of her; "she's real sharp set after books; she's ready to fly out of her
little skin at the sight of one."

"That child thinks too much, and feels too much, and knows too much for
her years!" said Mr. Sewell. "If she were a boy, and you would take her
away cod-fishing, as you have Moses, the sea-winds would blow away some
of the thinking, and her little body would grow stout, and her mind less
delicate and sensitive. But she's a woman," he said, with a sigh, "and
they are all alike. We can't do much for them, but let them come up as
they will and make the best of it."

CHAPTER XVI

THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL

"Emily," said Mr. Sewell, "did you ever take much notice of that little
Mara Lincoln?"

"No, brother; why?"

"Because I think her a very uncommon child."

"She is a pretty little creature," said Miss Emily, "but that is all I
know; modest--blushing to her eyes when a stranger speaks to her."

"Sh