David did not find it easy to say all this to Philip, and there was silence for a minute or two.
“But haven’t you been losing time?” said Philip.
“No. Mamma does not think so. Time should try a decision so important, she thinks. I am young yet, and I have been keeping up my reading pretty well. And, besides, she thinks the care, and the steady work, and our life altogether,—having to manage with just enough, you know,—has been good discipline for me, and a sort of preparation.”
“I see! And when is the other sort of preparation to begin?”
“I don’t know. The way will open, mamma always says. When we came here first, mamma and Violet meant to keep a school; but, after Violet went to teach your sisters, we could get on without it, and it was so much better for us to have mamma all to ourselves. She may think of it again, and Violet is better able to help her now.”
“It is a slave’s life.”
“No; I don’t think mamma objects to it on that ground. But there is no haste about it. I always remember what mamma said to me once—‘If your master has a special work for you to do, He will provide the means for special preparation.’”
“What a wonderful woman your mother is!” said Philip.
David laughed, such a happy laugh.
“Is she? She does not think so.”