"Miss Myra has been sent to her room in disgrace," said Mr. Sam. Mr. Benny asked no further questions, but pocketed the letter which Mr. Sam indited, and fetched his hat. As it happened, however, at the gate he met Hester leading Clem by the hand; and receiving the child from her, handed him over to Susannah. "You are going home?" he asked, as he rejoined Hester at the gate. They were already warm friends. "I am on my way. And you?" "We'll cross the ferry together, if you'll wait a moment while I deliver a note at Mrs. Trevarthen's." Mrs. Trevarthen was at her door. She took the note, and, before opening it, looked at Hester curiously. "You know what's inside of it, I reckon?" she said, turning to Mr. Benny. "Not a word." "My eyes are bad," said Mrs. Trevarthen, who, as a matter of fact, could not read. Mr. Benny knew this, and knew also that Mrs. Trevarthen as a rule employed Aunt Butson to write her few letters and decipher the few that came to her. "The light's bad for the time of year," he said. "Shall I read it for you, missus?" "No; let _her_ read it," answered the old woman, holding out the letter to Hester. Hester took it and read-- "Madam,--This is to inform you that the rent of my cottage, at present occupied by you on a monthly tenancy at 9 pounds per annum, will from the first of next month be raised to 15 pounds per annum; also that the tenancy will not, after that date, carry with it a permission to let lodgings.--Yours truly, S. ROSEWARNE." In the silence that followed Mrs. Trevarthen fixed her bright beady eyes steadily on Hester. "You've driven forth my son from me," she said at length, "and you're driving forth my lodger, and there's nobbut the almshouse left. Never a day's worry has my son Tom given to me, and never a ha'p'orth o' harm have we done to you. A foreigner you are and a stranger; the lad made me promise not to curse 'ee, and I won't. But get out of my sight, and the Lord deliver us from temptation!--Amen." Poor Mr. Benny, who had written half a dozen enthusiastic verses on the opening of the new school, crushed them down in his pocket. He had been so proud of them, too! They ran-- "This morning the weather was wreathed in smiles. And we, correspondingly gay, Assembled together from several miles To welcome our Opening Day." "The children were plastic in body and mind. Their faces and pinafores clean; And persons scholastic, in accents refined. With eloquence pointed the scene." "Blest scene! as its features we fondly recall, Come let us give thanks to the Lord! The Parents, the Teacher, the Managers all, Including the Clerk to the Board!" BOOK III. CHAPTER XVI. AUNT BUTSON CLOSES SCHOOL.