she had heard some such comments
when she was young, though the lines were more strictly drawn then.

"Has Winthrop been over to see his charge? How does he feel about it?
Now, if she had been a boy----"

"He was up to tea last night, and he and Foster have been arranging the
business this morning. Foster is to be joint trustee, but Winthrop will
be her guardian."

"What will he do with a girl! Why, she'll set Recompense crazy."

"She is not going to live there. For the present she will stay here. She
will go to Mrs. Webb's school this winter. He has an idea of sending
her to boarding school later on."

"Is she that rich?" asked Aunt Priscilla with a little sarcasm.

"She will have a small income from what her father left. Then there is
the rent of the house in School Street, and some stock. Winthrop thinks
she ought to be well educated. And if she should ever have to depend on
herself, teaching seems quite a good thing. Even Mrs. Webb makes a very
comfortable living."

"But we're going to educate the community for nothing, and tax the
people who have no children to pay for it."

"Well," said Mrs. Leverett with a smile, "that evens up matters. But the
others, at least property owners, have to pay their share. I tell Foster
that we ought not grudge our part, though we have no children to send."

"How did people get along before?"

"I went to school until I was fifteen."

"And when I was twelve I was doing my day's work spinning. There's talk
that we shall have to come back to it. Jonas Field is in a terrible
taking. According to him war's bound to come. And this embargo is just
ruining everything. It is to be hoped we will have a new President
before everything goes."

"Yes, it is making times hard. But we are learning to do a great deal
more for ourselves."

"It behooves us not to waste our money. But Winthrop Adams hasn't much
real calculation. So long as he has money to buy books, I suppose he
thinks the world will go on all right. It's to be hoped Foster will look
out for the girl's interest a little. But you'll be foolish to take the
brunt of the thing. Now it would be just like you 'Lizabeth Leverett, to
take care of this child, without a penny, just as if she was some
charity object thrown on your hands."

Mrs. Leverett did give her soft laugh then.

"You have just hit it, Aunt Priscilla," she said. "Winthrop wanted to
pay her board, but Foster just wouldn't hear to it, this year at least.
We ha