"Going on seven;" answered the mother.
"Can you read?"
"Bless your life, Miss Idy! I don't have time to teach them, nor their father neither. Mercy knows how they are to git any learnin'. Poor folks don't need much, but its more re-spectable to know how to read and write."
"But you can read, Mrs. Diggans."
"I used to could."
"You do not object to their being taught if you are not troubled about it?"
"No-o. I reckon not—but who's a goin' to do it? thar's the rub!"
"I will have it done."
"You! Miss Ida! oh-oh! teachin' poor folk's chillen ain't for the likes of you. We've scuffled along without edication, and so must they."
"Say you will send them, Mrs. Diggans, and I pledge you my word they shall be as carefully attended to, as if they were the richest in the land."