 of the globes, I had never been able to find it out myself, so perhaps I
was not a good judge of Miss Matty's capability of instructing in this branch of
education; but it struck me that equators and tropics, and such mystical
circles, were very imaginary lines indeed to her, and that she looked upon the
signs of the Zodiac as so many remnants of the Black Art.
    What she piqued herself upon, as arts in which she excelled, was making
candle-lighters, or spills (as she, preferred calling them), of coloured paper,
cut so as to resemble feathers, and knitting garters in a variety of dainty
stitches. I had once said, on receiving a present of an elaborate pair, that I
should feel quite tempted to drop one of them in the street, in order to have it
admired; but I found this little joke (and it was a very little one) was such a
distress to her sense of propriety, and was taken with such anxious, earnest
alarm, lest the temptation might some day prove too strong for me, that I quite
regretted having ventured upon it. A present of these delicately-wrought
garters, a bunch of gay spills, or a set of cards on which sewing-silk was wound
in a mystical manner, were the well-known tokens of Miss Matty's favour. But
would any one pay to have their children taught these arts? or, indeed, would
Miss Matty sell, for filthy lucre, the knack and the skill with which she made
trifles of value to those who loved her?
    I had to come down to reading, writing, and arithmetic; and, in reading the
chapter every morning, she always coughed before coming to long words. I doubted
her power of getting through a genealogical chapter, with any number of coughs.
Writing she did well and delicately - but spelling! She seemed to think that the
more out-of-the-way this was, and the more trouble it cost her, the greater the
compliment she paid to her correspondent; and words that she would spell quite
correctly in her letters to me became perfect enigmas when she wrote to my
father.
    No! there was nothing she could teach to the rising generation of Cranford,
unless they had been quick learners and ready imitators of her patience, her
humility, her sweetness, her quiet contentment with all that she could not do. I
pondered and pondered until dinner was announced by Martha, with a face all
blubbered and swollen with crying.
    Miss Matty had a few little peculiarities which
