“Ye did weel, too, laddie,” observed Janet. “The wise man knows where his strength lies, the weakest may thus come off the conqueror.”
She had now to make arrangements for Margaret’s education. This was more difficult than for that of the boys. She could not trust her sweet, gentle, blue-eyed maid among girls who might be rough or unmannerly, and yet she could not possibly afford to send her to one of the upper class of schools. Margaret already read much better than she did, for her own attainments extended no further than a limited amount of reading and writing. The few books, besides the Bible, she had brought away from the minister’s library, were mostly on theological subjects, somewhat, she felt sure, beyond Margaret’s comprehension. She lived on dry crusts for many a day to sanction her extravagance in purchasing several books, one after the other, suited to the little maiden’s taste. Margaret was delighted to receive them, and while Janet sat and span she read them aloud to her, and amply rewarded was the kind nurse for her self-denial. Not dreaming that Margaret could possibly educate herself, she still continued turning in her mind how that desirable object should be accomplished.
“Dinna ye think that if we ask God He will show us the way,” said Margaret, one day, looking up into the face of her nurse, who had made some remark on the subject.
“We will do as ye propose, my sweet bairn,” answered Janet. “He is sure to hear us,” and, accordingly, when the chapter from the Bible had been read, which Janet never omitted doing, she, with her young flock around her, knelt in prayer, as had been the custom at the manse, and she did not fail to ask for guidance and direction in the matter which had so sorely perplexed her mind.
Chapter Two.
The boys obtain prizes.—Janet declines receiving visits from Alec Galbraith, or any of their school-mates.—Margaret’s illness.—Is ordered fresh air and sea-bathing.—Carried off by a wave, and saved by Alec Galbraith.—Margaret and her brothers are introduced to his mother.
It gave joy to the loving heart of Janet, when one day her two bairns came home, each with a prize under his arm.
“But mine is only the second in my form; David got the first prize in his,” said Donald, as they exhibited their books to the eager eyes of their nurse and sister.