It's no worse to be out of pork than 'tis to eat codfish the whole
durin' time."

This was a home thrust, for Mrs. Perkins, who always kept one or two
boarders, and among them the school-teacher was notorious for feeding
them on codfish.

Bridling up in a twinkling, her little gray eyes flashed fire as she
replied, "I s'pose it's me you mean, Miss Bates; but I guess I've a
right to eat what I'm a mind to. I only ask a dollar and ninepence a
week for boarding the school marm--"

"And makes money at that," whispered a rosy-cheeked girlish-looking
woman, who the summer before had been the "school-marm," and who now
bore the name of a thrifty young farmer.

Mrs. Perkins, however, did not notice this interruption but proceeded
with, "Yes, a dollar and ninepence is all I ever ask, and if I kept
them so dreadful slim, I guess the committee man wouldn't always come
to me the first one."

"Mrs. Perkins, here's the pint," said Mrs. Bates, dropping a stitch in
her zeal to explain matters; "you see the cheaper they get the
school-ma'am boarded, the further the money goes, and the longer
school they have. Don't you understand it?"

Mrs. Knight, fancying that affairs were assuming altogether too
formidable an aspect, adroitly turned the conversation upon the
heroine of our story, saying how glad she was that Mary had at last
found so good a home.