Meanwhile Cecile and Maurice went to school by day, and sometimes
also by night. At school both children learned a great many things.
Cecile found out what geography was, and her teacher, who was a very
good-natured young woman, did not refuse her earnest request to learn
all she could about France.

Cecile had long ago been taught by her own dead father to read, and
she could write a very little. She was by no means what would be
considered a smart child. Her ideas came slowly--she took in
gradually. There were latent powers of some strength in the little
brain, and what she once learned she never forgot, but no amount of
school teaching could come to Cecile quickly. Maurice, on the
contrary, drank in his school accomplishments as greedily and easily
as a little thirsty flower drinks in light and water. He found no
difficulty in his lessons, and was soon quite the pride of the infant
school where he was placed.

The change in his life was doing him good. He was a willful little
creature, and the regular employment was taming him, and Mrs.
Moseley's motherly care, joined to a slight degree of wholesome
discipline, was subduing the little faults of selfishness which his
previous life as Cecile's sole charge could not but engender.

It is to be regretted that Toby, hitherto, perhaps, the most perfect
character of the three, should in these few weeks of prosperity
degenerate the most. Having no school to attend, and no care whatever
on his mind, this dog decided to give himself up to enjoyment. The
weather was most bitterly cold. It was quite unnecessary for him to
accompany Cecile and Maurice to school. _His_ education had long
ago been finished. So he selected to stay in the warm kitchen, and