"What! that dried cuttle-fish, with nothing livin' about her but
her eyes? James North, ye may be a fool like the old woman,--
perhaps it's in the family,--but ye ain't a devil, like that gal!
That ends it."

And it did. North dispatched a second letter to Maria saying that
he had already made other arrangements for the baby. Pleased with
her easy victory, Miss Bessy became more than usually gracious, and
the next day bowed her shapely neck meekly to the yoke of her
teacher, and became a docile pupil. James North could not have
helped noticing her ready intelligence, even had he been less
prejudiced in her favor than he was fast becoming now. If he had
found it pleasant before to be admonished by her there was still
more delicious flattery in her perfect trust in his omniscient
skill as a pilot over this unknown sea. There was a certain
enjoyment in guiding her hand over the writing-book, that I fear he
could not have obtained from an intellect less graciously sustained
by its physical nature. The weeks flew quickly by on gossamer
wings, and when she placed a bunch of larkspurs and poppies in his
hand one morning, he remembered for the first that it was spring.

I cannot say that there was more to record of Miss Bessy's
education than this. Once North, half jestingly, remarked that he
had never yet seen her admirer, Mr. Hank Fisher. Miss Bessy
(coloring but cool)--"You never will!" North (white but hot)--
"Why?" Miss Bessy (faintly)--"I'd rather not." North
(resolutely)--"I insist." Bessy (yielding)--"As my teacher?"
North (hesitatingly, at the limitation of the epithet)--"Y-e-e-s!"
Bessy--"And you'll promise never to speak of it again?" North--
"Never." Bessy (slowly--"Well, he said I did an awful thing to go