“Mr. Teachum was a very sensible man, and took great delight in improving his wife, as she also placed her chief pleasure in receiving his instructions. One of his constant subjects of discourse to her was concerning the education of children; so that, when in his last illness his physicians pronounced him beyond the power of their art to relieve him, he expressed great satisfaction in the thought of leaving his children to the care of so prudent a mother. “Mrs. Teachum, though exceedingly afflicted by such a loss, yet thought it her duty to call forth all her resolution to conquer her grief, in order to apply herself to the care of these her dear husband’s children. But her misfortunes were not here to end: for within a twelve-month after the death of her husband she was deprived of both her children by a violent fever that then raged in the country; and about the same time, by the unforeseen breaking of a banker in whose hands almost all her fortune was just then placed, she was bereft of the means of her future support. “The Christian fortitude with which (through her husband’s instructions) she had armed her mind, had not left it in the power of any outward accident to bereave her of her understanding, or to make her incapable of doing what was proper on all occasions. Therefore, by the advice of all her friends, she undertook what she was so well qualified for--namely, the education of children. “And this trust she endeavoured faithfully to discharge, by instructing those committed to her care in reading, writing, working, and in all proper forms of behaviour. And though her principal aim was to improve their minds in all useful knowledge, to render them obedient to their superiors, and gentle, kind, and affectionate to each other, yet she did not omit teaching them an exact neatness in their persons and dress, and a perfect gentility in their whole carriage.” “Reading, writing, working, and all proper forms of behaviour.” And it is on the “proper forms of behaviour” that the story lays stress. And it must frankly be admitted that the teaching was necessary. The number of Mrs. Teachum’s young ladies was limited to nine. The eldest, Miss Jenny Peace, was just turned fourteen, and the others were all under twelve. Miss Jenny Peace being of such an advanced age, necessarily has cast upon her a responsibility for improving the tone of the school, and rises to the occasion with a sweet self-confidence, combined with modesty, which the nineteen-year-old captain of a high school nowadays might admire, but would hardly dare to imitate. The quarrels of the two Miss Piners seem tame, although solely on account of the inferior numbers, by comparison with the free fight in which Mrs. Teachum’s young ladies indulge at the beginning of the story.