CHAP. PAGE 1. The Mysteries of Wisdom 1 2. Maternal Anticipations 15 3. Lessons on the Hills 29 4. Signs in the Sky 42 5. Owen and X. Y. Z. 58 6. Press and Post-Office 73 7. The Policy of M.Ps. 96 8. Family Secrets 117 9. The Mysteries laid open 122 THE SCHOLARS OF ARNESIDE. CHAPTER I. THE MYSTERIES OF WISDOM. “Come, my maiden: come and tell me. You know what it is I like to hear of a Sunday evening,” said Nurse Ede to her little girl. Nurse was sitting with her hands before her, beside the old round table from which she had cleared away the supper. As it was Sunday evening, she could not work; and nurse had never been taught to read. Little Mildred was standing on the door-sill, watching Owen and Ambrose who were engaged outside. As she turned in at her mother’s summons, she said she thought it rained; which the sheep would be glad of to-morrow. Mrs. Ede went to the door to call in her boys, lest Owen’s best jacket should suffer by the rain. “Bless the lads!” cried she. “What are they sprawling on the ground in that manner for?” “Watching the ants home,” Mildred explained. “There are more ants than ever, mother: all in a line. Ambrose found where they went to at one end; and now he is looking for the other nest. They are running as fast as ever they can go.” “Though ’tis Sunday,” observed nurse. “Well! ’tis not every body that Sunday is given to: and it is no rule, my dear, because the ants run as fast as ever they can go, that you should not walk quietly to school and to church, as the Lord bids. Come in, my dears, and leave the ants to go to their beds. It is coming up for rain, and mizzles somewhat already. Come in, and tell me about school this morning. I had not the luck to be at a school in my day,” she went on to say, while the boys followed her in, and brushed the dust from each other’s elbows and knees. “I had nothing to tell my poor father of a Sunday evening, of what I had learned. So let me hear now. I am sure you were steady children this morning.”