“Why, I don’t know; earning money is rather hard work, as I’ve heard people say. I believe young ladies generally earn money by teaching.”
“Well,” said Lucy, “if I could only get any scholars.”
“Why, you must be your own scholar; teach yourself to read. Come, I think that will be an excellent plan.”
“Can I earn any money so?” said Lucy.
“Yes, I should think so. It would take you three months, at a school, to learn your letters, and three months is twelve weeks. Now, I suppose that your father would have to pay about sixpence a week for you to go to school, and that would make twelve sixpences; and I presume he would be willing to give you as much as eight of the sixpences, if you would learn to read yourself.”
“Why not all the twelve?” asked Lucy.
“Because you would not do quite all yourself. Somebody would have to answer your questions, and show you what the letters were, at first; so that you could not do it all yourself. I should think that perhaps you might earn eight out of the twelve sixpences. That would be one sixpence for every three letters.”
“Well,” said Lucy, “I mean to try.”
“If you think you would like to try,” said Miss Anne, “I’ll form a plan for you, so that you can begin to-morrow.”
Lucy said she should like to try, and accordingly Miss Anne reflected upon the subject that evening, endeavoring to contrive some plan by which Lucy might sit down by herself and study her letters, half an hour every day, until she had learned them all. She thought of a plan which she hoped might answer pretty well; and the next morning she made preparations for carrying it into execution.