g. She talked it over with her grandmother, and decided that she
had better try a subscription school in the country first; then, if she
succeeded in giving satisfaction, she would apply in the winter for the
position of assistant in the Hill's Station school.

Her grandmother, placid and fair, with a cap of sheer white muslin
resting on her yet brown hair, and a pair of gold-bowed spectacles
pushed up on her forehead above her kindly blue eyes, was considered a
handsome old woman, and showed few traces of the life of toil through
which she had passed. She read a great deal in a New Testament with
large print, and often sat a long time in thought, with it open on her
knees. Another work which she frequently perused was Mrs. Ellet's "Women
of the Revolution," in two volumes, containing steel engravings of
stately dames in laced bodices and powdered hair.

Elvira borrowed a horse of one of the neighbors, put her grandmother's
much-worn red plush side saddle upon it, and started out in search of a
school. She rode east and she rode north; but in the first district they
had a teacher already engaged, and in the second they had concluded they
wouldn't have any school that summer. Did they know of any other school
where a teacher was wanted? she inquired. No, they couldn't say they
did; but she might hear of one by inquiring further, the honest district
trustees said. So she rode homeward again, in no wise discouraged, and
asked the postmaster to inquire of the farmers who came in from other
neighborhoods in regard to this matter.

He promised that he would, and a week later called her in as she was
passing, and said, "There was a man here yesterday from Buck Creek
district who said they wanted a teacher in their school this summer. You
might try there. His name is Sapp, and he lives right by the
school-house. You go two miles and a half south till you come to a mud
road, then two miles and a half east till you come to a pike. You can't
miss the place."

Elvira thanked him, and a little while later, when her accommodating
neighbor was not using his horse, she borrowed it again and rode forth
on her quest. It had been raining, the mud road was muddy, and clouds
still hung in the sky; but the country through which she passed was a
rich, fresh green, and the fruit-orchards were in bloom. From solitary
farm-houses big dogs and little dogs issued forth to bark at the sound
of her horse's feet, and bareheaded children at this si