"And why should Isabella be setting her daughters up for teachers?" theysaid. "It's no great schoolin' she had herself, and if her kids do aswell as she's done, they'll be lucky,"--a speech which made JohnMcDonald chuckle out when it was reported to him. He could afford to laughnow.

"I mind there was a day when they thought different o' me from that," hesaid. "I'm obliged to them for nothin'; but I'd like the little one tohave a better chance than the marryin' o' a man like me, an' ifanything'll get it for her, it'll be schoolin'."

The "boardin' like a lady," which had so offended the Misses Mclntosh'ssense of propriety, was not, after all, so great an extravagance as theyhad supposed; for it was in his own brother's house her thrifty fatherhad put her, and had stipulated that part of the price of her board wasto be paid in produce of one sort and another from the farm, at marketrates; "an' so, ye see, the lass 'll be eatin' it there 'stead of here,"he said to his wife when he told her of the arrangement, "an' it's asma' difference it'll make to us i' the end o' the two months."

"An' a big difference to her a' her life," replied Isabella, hotly.

"Ay, wife," said John, "if it fa's out as ye hope; but it's mainuncertain countin' on the book-knowledge. There's some it draws up an'some it draws down; it's a millstone. But the lass is bright; she's aslike you as two peas in a pod. If ye'd had the chance she's had--"