"Now one thing am I bound to do. It will be hard to see the way, but—I am going to a dame school!
"Mistress Maria Kent has long had pupils, and a likely teacher she must be. School goes in this day week. I mean to be there! But how? I know not, yet some way will I find to learn."
That night Sally lay long awake. How busy was her mind! How many ways she tried to plan! At length she exclaimed:
"I have it! I have it! That will I do. If Mistress Cory Ann makes a noise about it,—and I greatly fear me she will,—then must I put on bravery and tell her, with seemly respect, but with a good show of will, that learning I want and that learning I must have."
The next afternoon, as soon as she was through her supper, Sally made herself both neat and pretty in appearance. Her hair was now all the time made to look almost smooth, the gray and white print with a red rose for a breastpin was well brightened up. The decent shoes were on her feet.
She slipped away without being seen by the sharp eyes of Mistress Cory Ann, for she felt that her looks would not be pleasing to her. More than once had Mistress Brace spoken smartly of her smoother hair, and she had not liked the buying of the shoes.
Now, should she see Sally gliding away, the new dress on, a rose for ornament, and with shoes on, she would demand being told at once whither she was bound.
Mistress Maria Kent was sitting on the porch at her pretty little home, the picture of an old-time schoolmistress. Her hair was parted with a precision that could not have been increased, and it was brought smoothly down on either side, where it was rounded just in front of her ears, a little hard quirl being carried over her ears and pinned closely to her back hair.
Her long-waisted dress of blue cambric was of a Puritan plainness, while the deeply wrought collar lying flat around her neck was fastened with a round breastpin that had hair curiously plaited in the centre, surrounded by black and white enamel, and all framed in gold.