The hidden treasure

by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

Her school soon became very popular, as well with pupils as with parents. The mothers rejoiced in the manifest improvement in the manners and appearance of their little girls and their advancement in all useful arts, and were flattered that their children should be taught by a "born lady." The children themselves learned to love their teacher and to feel themselves exceedingly comfortable under her gentle but decided sway. It was certainly true, as Master Lucas had said, that Madam Barbara had a natural talent for managing children. She knew how to combine the most absolute authority with great indulgence and kindness. She knew that the youthful human heart has many avenues of approach, and that as much might be done by praises and rewards as by reproof and punishment. She possessed the inestimable art of prevention—she knew that it was a great deal better if possible to keep children from being naughty, than to punish them afterwards. Her sway was so gentle, as compared with that of Master Crabtree over the boys, as to arouse some murmurings among the latter, that the girls should be so much better off than they were.

"Yes, Peggy may well like to go to school," said Mary Brent's boy Peter, in reply to his mother, who had been holding up his sister to him as an example. "It is a very different thing. Madam Barbara is always kind and gentle. She hardly ever punishes the girls, and when they do well she gives them cakes and comfits; and praises them beside. Master Crabtree hardly ever says a good word to a boy, no matter how much pains he may take; and if he does the least thing out of the way, whack comes the strap across his back or hand. If Peggy went to Master Crabtree, she wouldn't be in such a hurry to get to school, I can tell you."

"No, that I shouldn't," agreed little Peggy, heartily sympathizing with her brother. "I wish Peter could go to Madam Barbara, only she doesn't take boys."

"As though I would go to school with a parcel of little maids," growled Peter; but in his heart he wished so too.

Jack meantime fell very much into his old ways, helping his father with his accounts, playing with his old schoolmates, and going to Sir William Leavett for a Greek lesson twice a week; for, to his own disappointment as well as to that of Master Crabtree, his father firmly refused to let him go into school at present.

"He will lose all he has gained if he once gets back into that close room, and with Master Crabtree to drive him with whip and spur," said Master Lucas. "I am willing to have him learn what he can at home, since Sir William is so kind as to help him; but to school he shall not go for a year."

And as Master Lucas, with all his kindness and gentleness, was an absolute monarch in his family, Jack was fain to submit, especially as he found upon making the trial that he could not bear the confinement for any length of time. So he gave up the thought of going to school this year and to Oxford the next, and contented himself with what he could do at home. He was especially anxious to get on with Greek, as Master Fleming promised him a copy of Erasmus' Greek Testament as soon as he was able to read it intelligently; and with the help of Sir William Leavett, he made great progress.

Master Fleming still remained in Bridgewater at the house of his cousin, now and then making an excursion into the country, especially to the houses of Lord Harland and the knight of Holford, with whom he seemed to be on terms of great intimacy. He had been invited to the tables of most of the substantial citizens of Bridgewater; but while he was always ready for a friendly chat upon London matters, trade in general, or any other topic, he was anything but a boon companion and frowned most decidedly upon any light or loose conversation. He visited much among the poor of Father William's congregation, especially among the sailors' families down by the waterside, and gave a large present in money to the fund of the almshouses for the widows of mariners, which had been endowed by the will of a wealthy ship-owner some years before.

He was often to be found in Master Lucas' shop, sometimes under the pretext of storing his pockets with cakes and sweets for the school-children, sometimes merely to have an hour's talk with the kind genial old man; and he and Jack took long walks into the country on pleasant evenings, talking of everything in heaven and earth; Jack asking endless questions, and Master Fleming listening and answering with that patient kindness and sympathy which often produces in an intelligent young person of either sex, a sort of adoring reverence for an older companion. In short, Master Fleming won golden opinions from all sorts of people, from the prior of the convent, whom he informed as to the best way of supplying his house with almonds and figs, wax candles and fine cloth, to Mary Brent and her little children, to whom he gave cakes and toys and more substantial comforts.

Mary Brent's condition had considerably improved since we first met her in Master Lucas's shop at the beginning of this tale. She had recovered from her injury, and thanks to the long rest enforced by her sprained ankle, and to the generous diet provided by Dame Cicely, she found herself in better health than she had been since the death of her husband. She was thus enabled to take in the fine washing and ironing in which she excelled, and which was then a profitable business, owing to the great quantity of laces worn by both sexes.