the table with their books and slates before them. A tub and a clothes-horse
at the other end of the kitchen indicated an intermittent wash of small things
also going on.
    Mrs. Garth, with her sleeves turned above her elbows, deftly handling her
pastry - applying her rolling-pin and giving ornamental pinches, while she
expounded with grammatical fervour what were the right views about the concord
of verbs and pronouns with »nouns of multitude or signifying many,« was a sight
agreeably amusing. She was of the same curly-haired, square-faced type as Mary,
but handsomer, with more delicacy of feature, a pale skin, a solid matronly
figure, and a remarkable firmness of glance. In her snowy-frilled cap she
reminded one of that delightful Frenchwoman whom we have all seen marketing,
basket on arm. Looking at the mother, you might hope that the daughter would
become like her, which is a prospective advantage equal to a dowry - the mother
too often standing behind the daughter like a malignant prophecy - »Such as I
am, she will shortly be.«
    »Now let us go through that once more,« said Mrs. Garth, pinching an
apple-puff which seemed to distract Ben, an energetic young male with a heavy
brow, from due attention to the lesson. »Not without regard to the import of the
word as conveying unity or plurality of idea - tell me again what that means,
Ben.«
    (Mrs. Garth, like more celebrated educators, had her favourite ancient
paths, and in a general wreck of society would have tried to hold her Lindley
Murray above the waves.)
    »Oh - it means - you must think what you mean,« said Ben, rather peevishly.
»I hate grammar. What's the use of it?«
    »To teach you to speak and write correctly, so that you can be understood,«
said Mrs. Garth, with severe precision. »Should you like to speak as old Job
does?«
    »Yes,« said Ben, stoutly; »it's funnier. He says, Yo goo - that's just as
good as You go.«
    »But he says, A ship's in the garden, instead of a sheep,« said Letty, with
an air of superiority. »You might think he meant a ship off the sea.«
    »No, you mightn't, if you weren't silly,« said Ben. »How could a ship off
the sea come there?«
    »These things belong