Mrs. Dunlee turned now and regarded her daughter attentively.
"But how did you ever happen to take up this sudden fancy for teaching, dear? It's all new to me. What first made you think of it—at your age? Can you tell?"
"Oh, mamma, I've been thinking about it, off and on, for a year. Ever since I was at Willowbrook last summer and heard Grandma Parlin talk about her first school. Why, don't you remember, she was just fourteen, she said, nearly three months younger than I am."
Mrs. Dunlee understood it all now, and said to herself:—
"Dear old Grandma Parlin! Little did she imagine she was filling her great grand-daughter's head with mischievous notions!"
They walked on a short way in silence. "But you must remember, Katharine, that was seventy years ago. Grandma Parlin wouldn't advise a girl of fourteen to do in these days as she did then. Schools are very different now."
"Yes, indeed, mamma, very, very different. Isn't it too bad? I'd like to 'board 'round' the way grandma did, and rap on the window with a ferule, and 'choose sides' and all that! But there's one thing I could do!" exclaimed the little girl, brightening. "I could make the children 'toe the mark'; wouldn't that be fun? I mean stand in a line on a crack in the floor. How grandma would laugh! I'll write her all about it, and send her a photograph, bare feet and all."
In her eagerness Kyzie spoke as if the matter were all arranged and she could almost see the children "toeing the mark."
"Not so fast, my daughter. Remember there are three points to be settled before we can discuss the matter seriously. First, would your papa consent? Second, would your mamma consent? Third, do the people of Castle Cliff want a summer school anyway?"
"Three points? I see, oh, yes," said Kyzie, meekly.