fault, and not the pupil's."

"Other people got along all right," said Bessie. She wasn't quite
prepared to say a good word for Jake Hoover yet. He had caused her too
much trouble in the past.

"Why," she went on, "I used to have to do his lessons for him all the
time. He just wouldn't study at home, Miss Eleanor, and in school he was
so big, and such a bully, that most of the teachers were afraid of him."

"That just shows they weren't good teachers, Bessie. No good teacher is
ever afraid of a bully. She has plenty of people to back her up if she
really needs help. I don't say Jake Hoover is any better than he ought
to be, but from all you tell me, part of his trouble may be because he
hasn't been properly handled. But let's forget him, anyhow. Look over
there. Do you see that white house on top of the hill?"

"Against the sun, so that it's sort of pink where the sun strikes it?"
said Bessie. "Yes, what a lovely place!"

"Well, that's where we're going," said Eleanor.

"But--but that doesn't look a bit like a farmhouse!" said Bessie,
surprised. "I thought--"

"You thought it would be more like the Hoover farm, didn't you?" laughed
Eleanor. "Well, of course that's only our house, and Dad built a nice
one, on the finest piece of land he could find, because we were going to
spend a good deal of time there. There's electric light and running
water in all the rooms and we're just as comfortable there as we would