"What ails you? You ain't so well as when you was here before," said Mrs. Harbonner, looking at her narrowly. "I am well," said Daisy. "You ain't fur from bein' something else then. I suppose you're dyin' with learning--while my Hephzibah can't get schooling enough to read her own name. That's the way the world's made up!" "Isn't there a school at Crum Elbow?" said Daisy. "Isn't there! And isn't there a bench for the rags? No, my Hephzibah don't go to shew none." Mrs. Harbonner was so sharp and queer, though not unkindly towards herself, that Daisy was at a loss how to go on; and moreover, a big thought began to turn about in her head. "Poverty ain't no shame, but it's an inconvenience," said Mrs. Harbonner. "Hephzibah may stay to home and be stupid, when she's as much right to be smart as anybody. That's what I look at; it ain't having a little to eat now and then." "Melbourne is too far off for her to get there, isn't it?" said Daisy. "What should she go there for?" "If she could get there," said Daisy, "and would like it,--I would teach her." "_You_ would?" said Mrs. Harbonner. "What would you learn her?" "I would teach her to read," said Daisy, colouring a little; "and anything else I could." "La, she can read," said Mrs. Harbonner, "but she don't know nothing, for all that. Readin' don't tell a person much, without he has books. I wonder how long it would hold out, if you begun? 'Taint no use to begin a thing and then not go on." "But could she get to Melbourne?" said Daisy. "I don't know. Maybe she can. Who'd she see at your house?" "Nobody, but the man at the lodge, or his mother." "Who's that?" "He's the man that lives in the lodge, to open the gate." "Open the gate, hey? Who pays him for it?" "Papa pays him, and he lives in the lodge." "I shouldn't think it would take a man to open a gate. Why Hephzibah could do it as well as anybody." Daisy did not see the point of this remark, and went on. "Hephzibah wouldn't see anybody else, but me." "Well, I believe you mean what you say," said Mrs. Harbonner, "and I hope you will when you're twenty years older--but I don't believe it. I'll let Hephzibah come over to you on Sundays--I know she's jumpin' out of her skin to go--she shall go on Sundays, but I can't let her go other days, 'cause she's got work to do; and anyhow it would be too fur. What time would you like to see her?" "As soon as it can be after afternoon church, if you please. I couldn't before." "You're a kind little soul!" said the woman. "Do you like flowers?" Daisy said yes. The woman went to a back door of the room, and opening it, plucked a branch from a great rose-bush that grew there. "We haint but one pretty thing about this house," said she presenting it to Daisy,--"but that's kind o' pretty." It was a very rich and delicious white rose, and the branch was an elegant one, clustered with flowers and buds. Daisy gave her thanks and took leave.