“I used to do it every day; that was before Ezra had rheumatism. I don’t go to school now. Do you go to the Hill school?” Jessie asked, then added, “Oh, no, of course you don’t, if you can’t cross the railroad track.”
“No, I don’t go anywhere,” returned Adele. “I am going to have a governess next week.”
“Shall you like that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I like Miss Eloise. She is a friend of my aunt’s and she is very nice and kind, at least she is now.”
“I thought governesses were always cross,” said Jessie as if it were a well-known fact.
“Maybe she will be when she gets to be a governess,” Adele remarked. “I hope she will not. I believe I’d rather not have her anyway. I hate lessons.”
“So do I,” returned Jessie delightedly. “I’m so glad you feel that way. I was so pleased when I knew I could stay at home for a while.”
“Are you going to stay away from school always?” asked Adele.
“Oh, I am sure I don’t know. I suppose we have to have educations, but it is very disagreeable. I don’t see why educations can’t come like teeth, when you’re ready for them, or an easier way still would be to wake up some morning and find you could do every example in the arithmetic, and another morning you could speak French, and another you would know all the rivers and capitals and mountains and things. Wouldn’t that be fine?”
Adele laughed. “I wake up every morning and know I can speak French.”