"I am well," said Daisy.
"You ain't fur from bein' something else then. I suppose you're dyin' with learning—while my Hephzibah can't get schooling enough to read her own name. That's the way the world's made up!"
"Isn't there a school at Crum Elbow?" said Daisy.
"Isn't there! And isn't there a bench for the rags? No, my Hephzibah don't go to shew none."
Mrs. Harbonner was so sharp and queer, though not unkindly towards herself, that Daisy was at a loss how to go on; and moreover, a big thought began to turn about in her head.
"Poverty ain't no shame, but it's an inconvenience," said Mrs. Harbonner. "Hephzibah may stay to home and be stupid, when she's as much right to be smart as anybody. That's what I look at; it ain't having a little to eat now and then."
"Melbourne is too far off for her to get there, isn't it?" said Daisy.
"What should she go there for?"
"If she could get there," said Daisy, "and would like it,—I would teach her."
"You would?" said Mrs. Harbonner. "What would you learn her?"