"I commend your resolution, my daughter,"--this was his phrase of greatest endearment--"but it is a weighty undertaking for a young person, and a woman. If commenced, it must be prosecuted vigorously, or it will do more harm than good. One session will hardly suffice for a beginning. This appropriation, which is a liberal deduction from your income, small as you deem it, is not for this year alone. Hitherto your affairs have prospered, but you may have reverses. A failure of crops, which not unfrequently happens to others, would embarrass you considerably." "I would draw upon my invested funds." "And if stocks fall, or a bank breaks?" "And what is more probable than that all these misfortunes will crowd upon me at once, I may die!" said Ida, with persuasive gravity, "and when my Heavenly Master demands the reckoning of my stewardship, I shall render in the plea, 'Lo! here is Thy talent, hid in a napkin!' He has given me--if not riches--more than a competency for my wants. It may not be worldly-wise, dear guardian, but it is Christian-like, to give of my present abundance, and trust that he will be as bountiful in time to come, as He has been until now." "There's sense and religion in that!" commented Mr. Grant, admiringly. "He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord," said Ida, smiling in her guardian's face. "What think you of the security, Mr. Dana?" "That your faith shames my caution. Assuming that the plan is feasible and prudent in its main points, let us descend to the minutiae--'Repairs of building'--where is the room?" Ida pointed from the window to a house in the yard. "My father built it for an office--my mother used it as a lumber-room. The plastering has fallen, and the roof leaks, but Will tells me the plantation carpenter and bricklayer can put it in good order. They can make the desks and benches too." "'Books'--this is the probable outlay, I suppose." "It is computed from a list of prices, furnished by a book-seller." "Now, last and most important--the teacher. Is it to be a girls' or a boys' school?" "For girls, mainly; but small boys will be admitted. Large ones might be refractory to a lady." "You will have an instructress, then? Where will she board?" "Here. Shall I not have a spinster household?" "With Miss Betsey to matronise you. You will be fastidious in your selection, as she is to be a member of your family. Your provident brain has not picked her out, surely?"