“Mr. Willett came to see us to-day,” said Jennie as we went home. “He spoke kindly of you, and said he supposed you would not want to come back after you had been to the academy; but if you did, there would be a place for you; and he told Miss Grimshaw that if you needed books, he would get them for you. He said a good deal more.”
“Perhaps he would rather you would not repeat it all. Did he know that you heard?”
“Oh yes. It is not wrong to tell what he said before me, is it?”
“Perhaps not; but Mr. Kirby said that we should not fall into the habit of repeating what people say, unless necessary to do so; that in this way much scandal is floated about, which, had it not been repeated, would have died out immediately.”
“Oh, brother, I did not mean to say any thing wrong.”
“Neither have you, Jennie. I thought at first you probably overheard him. There is surely no harm in repeating to me simply what he said before you, especially when he spoke so kindly.”
That night there was a happy meeting in Miss Grimshaw’s back parlor. Mrs. Jeffries came down with her first instalment of eatables on my account; and she met us so warmly, taking Jennie on her knee, and asking me all the little minutiæ of school life.
“You think you will like, then?” and she played with my hair in a motherly way.
“The only fear is, that I shall have to stop before I have half accomplished my desire.”
“One step at a time,” said Miss Grimshaw, while Jennie was so tired with her long walk and the unusual excitement of the day, that she went to sleep with her head on my shoulder, in the very effort of trying to master a new lesson.