suppose I shouldn't trouble about it if it were not for father's
teaching us in the winter evenings; but he knows so much, that we see
how ignorant we are."

"I didn't know that you were at home, Ruth. How long have you been
here?" asked her mother's voice.

"Only a few minutes."

"Where is your prize? And why did you not show it to me?"

[Illustration]

"Here it is, mother; but I don't much care for it. There is so little
credit in getting a prize at Miss Green's, where one makes so little
progress, and has to do the same thing over and over again."

"Yes," said Mrs. Arnold with a little sigh, "and so you will find it in
life, dear, the same thing over and over again, every day and every
year. But now," she added smiling, "as everyone is busy in the
hay-field, and baby has to be nursed and the cows to be milked every
day, will you help me to do one thing or the other?"

"Yes," said Ruth as she went to put on a large blue pinafore; "I'll go
and help Mary with the milking."

Five minutes later she was seated on a low stool beside her favourite
cow, Beauty, which had been reared on the farm, and named by Ruth
herself, who petted and talked to her like an old friend. The afternoon
was very warm, but still and sweet and quiet, with the summer hush upon