guess I look _dressed up_, but I'm awkward. I'm stiff as a hired
hand, and I fall over my feet. Look at 'em. Biggest live things in the
world without lungs! I got to get slim and graceful--"

"I'll teach you a setting-up routine, if you wish, although it is
scarcely in my line. Goodness knows you don't need physical culture."

"But I do," cried the girl.

"Very well. Riding is a smart accomplishment. Can you ride a horse?"

"Pshaw! I can carry a horse."

"You'd look well in a habit, and with baths, massage, dancing, and a
little diet I dare say you can reduce."

"I'll starve," Allie asserted, fiercely. "But that ain't half enough.
You gotta give me more studyin'. I got callouses on my hands and I'm
used to work. We'll get up at daylight-"

"Good heavens!" Mrs. Ring exclaimed, faintly.

"You learn me how to do the sitting-up things first off, then I'll do
'em alone. Ride me hard, Miz' Ring. I'll remember. I'll work; you won't
have to tell me twice. But I gotta make speed. I 'ain't got the time
other girls have."

"My dear child, all this cannot be done in a day, a week, a month."

"How long you allow it will take?"

The elder woman shrugged. "Years, perhaps."

"Years?"

"Real culture, social accomplishments, are the results of generations
of careful training. I'm not a miracle worker. But why this impatience?"

"I got-"

"I have."

"I have a reason. I can't take a generation; I'd be too late."

"Too late for what?"

But Allie refused to answer. "We'll start in to-day and we'll work
double tower till one of us plays out. What d'you say?"

At first Mrs. Ring took this energetic declaration with some reserve,
but before long she realized with consternation that Allie Briskow was
in deep earnest and that this was not a soft berth. Instead of
obtaining a rest she was being worked as never before. Allie was a
thing of iron; she was indefatigable; and her thirst for knowledge was
insatiate; it grew daily as she gained fuller understanding of her
ignorance. There was a frantic eagerness to her efforts, almost
pitiful. As time went on she began to hate herself for her stupidity
and to blame her people for her condition. She was a harder taskmaster
than her teacher. Most things she apprehended readily enough, but when
she failed to learn, when mental or physical awkwardness halted
progress, then she flew into a fury. Her temper appalled Mrs. Ring.

At such times Allie was more than disagreeable. Hate flame