Mrs. Winn thanked the boy who was so anxious to make amends for the mischief he had caused a few months before, and Jack started home on his wonderful bicycle, feeling happier than he had for many months past.
"I shall come again soon," he said, as he mounted his iron horse and rode away in the warm dusk of the evening.
"Yes, do," called Tom, Elsie, and little Bobbie, in one breath; and then they went in to talk over once more the alteration in Tom's prospects.
"I will call and see Mr. Murray on Monday," said the widow. And then she heaved a sigh, for she knew it would be quite out of her power to pay for extra lessons for Tom, and she must explain this to the schoolmaster at once, though it should betray her poverty in a fashion that was very painful to her.
There was, however, no help for it, and this news had brought her some consolation that neither of her children could understand, for they did not know how bitterly she had been blaming herself for coming here. But now if it should prove that Tom would be eligible for this scholarship, then her self-reproaches would lose half their sting, and she would feel that for Tom, at least, the move had brought nothing but good.
The country air agreed with all the children, and they were growing strong and vigorous as well as Tom, who seemed to be better than he had ever been in his life before. But it was the want of work that troubled her.
Mrs. Perceval was very pleased with the way she had made her girl's dresses, and had since given her two of her own to do, with which she was so fully satisfied, that she promised to recommend her to other friends.
"But I am only the doctor's wife, you know," she said, laughingly, "and not being a fashionable lady, some of them may think I am not a competent judge of what is the latest thing in dresses."
She did not forget her promise, but most of the ladies she spoke to on Mrs. Winn's behalf always sent their dresses to be made in London, and quite looked down upon a village dressmaker, though she had just come from London, and could easily get the latest fashions and patterns from there.
Some of them recommended their servants to try the new dressmaker who had come to live in Fairfield, and she got a few servant's and children's dresses to make; but her business did not increase as time wore on, as she hoped it would, and sometimes a whole week passed and she would not earn a penny.