"What makes you think so?" "Because you sit there and grin and grin all the time, and use big words that you know I can't understand. Where did you learn them?" "At school." "Oh, you've been to school, then, have you?" "Yes." "How long did you go to school?" "Ten or twelve years, altogether." "Ten or twelve years! What an awful stupid you must be!" She looked at him critically; then, with a modifying intonation, "Unless you learned a whole lot. I know I wouldn't have to go to school so long." She looked very decided. Then, after a pause, "You must have gone clear through your arithmetic. Zephyr taught me all about addition and division and fractions, clear to square root. I wanted to go through square root, but he said he didn't know anything about square root, and it wasn't any use, anyway. Did you go through square root?" "Yes. Do you want me to teach you square root?" "Oh, perhaps so, some time," Élise answered, indifferently. "What else did you study?" "Algebra, trigonometry, Latin, Greek." Firmstone teasingly went through the whole curriculum, ending with botany and zoology. Élise fairly gasped. "I never knew there was so much to learn. What's zoo--what did you call it--about?" "Zoology," explained Firmstone; "that teaches you about animals, and botany teaches you about plants." "Oh, is that all?" Élise looked relieved, and then superior. "Why, I know all about animals and plants and birds and things, and I didn't have any books, and I never went to school, either. Do all the big folks back East have to have books and go to school to learn such things? They must be awful stupids. Girls don't go to school out here, nor boys either. There aren't any schools out here. Not that I know of. Mammy says I must go to school somewhere. Daddy says I sha'n't. They have no end of times over it, and it's lots of fun to see daddy get mad. Daddy says I've got to get married right away. But I won't. You didn't tell me if girls went to school with you." "No; they have schools of their own." Élise asked many questions. Then, suddenly dropping the subject, she glanced up at the sun. "It's almost noon, and I'm awfully hungry. I think I'll have to go." "I'll walk down with you, if you'll allow me." He slipped his arm through the bridle and started down the trail. Élise walked beside him, plying him with questions about his life in the East, and what people said and did. Firmstone dropped his teasing manner and answered her questions as best he could. He spoke easily and simply of books and travel and a thousand and one things that her questions and comments suggested. Her manner had changed entirely. Her simplicity, born of ignorance of the different stations in life which they occupied, displayed her at her best. Her expressive eyes widened and deepened, and the colour of her cheeks paled and glowed under the influence of the new and strange world of which he was giving her her first glimpse.