stopped.

"You have all but what?"

"A little schooling."

"Here's the answer, Rule! You are to run right away as fast as you can
and take it to Mr. Ryland," said a servant, coming out upon the porch
and handing a letter to the boy.

It was a week after this interview with the lad before Cora saw him
again.

He was on the lawn in front of the house. She was at the window of the
front drawing room. As soon as she espied him she ran out to speak to
him, and eagerly begged that she might teach him to read.

The boy, surprised at the suddenness and the character of such an offer,
blushed, thanked the little lady, and declined, then hesitated,
reflected, and then, half reluctantly, half gratefully, consented.

Cora was delighted, and frankly expressed her joy.

"Oh, Regulas, I am so glad! Now every afternoon when I have done my
lessons--I am in Comly's first speller, Peter Parley's first book of
history, and first book of geography, and I am as far as short division
in arithmetic, and round hand in the copy book--so as soon as I get
through with my lessons, and you get through with your work, you come to
this back porch, where I play, and I will bring my old primer and white
slate, and I will teach you. If you get here before I do, you wait for