d proceeded to brush her own hair
carefully, and change her dress. She expected the children to follow
her example, but did not pay much attention to their proceedings, and
they, childlike, constantly and consistently shirked as much of the
ceremony as possible. If their mother caught them with unwashed hands
and half-brushed hair, she thumped them on the back, and made them
wash and brush; but she was generally thinking about something else,
and did not catch them. The rite, however, being regularly although
imperfectly performed, resulted in a good habit.

There was another thing too for which Beth had good reason to be
grateful to her mother. During winter, when the days were short, or
when bad weather made it impossible to go out on summer evenings, Mrs.
Caldwell always read aloud to the children after tea till bed-time.
Most mothers would have made the children read; but there was a great
deal of laxity mixed with Mrs. Caldwell's harshness. She found it
easier to do things herself than to make the children do them for her.
They objected to read, and liked to be read to, so she read to them;
and as, fortunately, she had no money to buy children's books, she
read what there were in the house. Beth's ear was still quicker than
her eye, and she would not read to herself if she could help it; but
before she was fourteen, thanks to her mother, she knew much of Scott,
Jane Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, Bulwer Lytton, and even some of
Shakespeare, well; besides such books as "The Woman in White," "The
Dead Secret," "Loyal Heart; or, The Trappers," "The Scalp Hunters,"
and many more, all of which helped greatly to develop her
intelligence.

CHAPTER XV

During the next two years, Beth continued to look on at life, with
eyes wide open, deeply interested. Her mind at this time, acting
without conscious effort, was a mere photographic apparatus for the
registration of impressions on the brain. Every incident stored and
docketed itself somewhere in her consciousness for future use, and it
was upon this hoard that she drew eventually with such astonishing
effect.

Rousseau in "Emile" chose a common capacity to educate, because, he
said, genius will educate itself; but even genius would find its
labours lightened by having been taught the use of some few tools,
such as are supplied by the rudiments of a conventional education.
Beth was never taught anything thoroughly; very few girls were in her
day. A woman was expect