CHAPTER VII.

ABEL GOES TO SCHOOL AGAIN.--DAME DATCHETT.--A COLUMN OF SPELLING.--
ABEL PLAYS MOOCHER.--THE MILLER'S MAN CANNOT MAKE UP HIS MIND.

Abel went to school again in the spring, and, though George would
have been better pleased had he forgotten the whole affair, he
remembered the word in George's young woman's love-letter which had
puzzled him; and never was a spelling-lesson set him among the M's
that he did not hope to come across it and to be able to demand the
meaning of Moerdyk from his Dame.

Without the excuse of its coming in the column of spelling set by
herself, Abel dared not ask her to solve his puzzle; for never did
teacher more warmly resent questions which she was unable to answer
than Dame Datchett.

Abel could not fully make up his mind whether it should be looked up
among two-syllabled or three-syllabled words. He decided for the
former, and one day brought his spelling-book to George in the
round-house.

"I've been a looking for that yere word, Gearge," said he. "There's
lots of Mo's, but it bean't among 'em. Here they be. Words of two
syllables; M, Ma, Me, Mi; here they be, Mo." And Abel began to
rattle off the familiar column at a good rate, George looking
earnestly over his shoulder, and following the boy's finger as it
moved rapidly down the page. "Mocking, Modern, Mohawk, Molar,
Molly, Moment, Money, Moping, Moral, Mortal, Moses, Motive,
Movement."