"Thank you, sir," said Mara; "I always want to read everything Moses does." "What book is it?" said Moses. "It is called Plutarch's 'Lives,'" said the minister; "it has more particular accounts of the men you read about in history." "Are there any lives of women?" said Mara. "No, my dear," said Mr. Sewell; "in the old times, women did not get their lives written, though I don't doubt many of them were much better worth writing than the men's." "I should like to be a great general," said Moses, with a toss of his head. "The way to be great lies through books, now, and not through battles," said the minister; "there is more done with pens than swords; so, if you want to do anything, you must read and study." "Do you think of giving this boy a liberal education?" said Mr. Sewell some time later in the evening, after Moses and Mara were gone to bed. "Depends on the boy," said Zephaniah. "I've been up to Brunswick, and seen the fellows there in the college. With a good many of 'em, going to college seems to be just nothing but a sort of ceremony; they go because they're sent, and don't learn anything more'n they can help. That's what I call waste of time and money." "But don't you think Moses shows some taste for reading and study?" "Pretty well, pretty well!" said Zephaniah; "jist keep him a little hungry; not let him get all he wants, you see, and he'll bite the sharper. If I want to catch cod, I don't begin with flingin' over a barrel o' bait. So with the boys, jist bait 'em with a book here and a book there, and kind o' let 'em feel their own way, and then, if nothin' will do but a fellow must go to college, give in to him--that'd be _my_ way." "And a very good one, too!" said Mr. Sewell. "I'll see if I can't bait my hook, so as to make Moses take after Latin this winter. I shall have plenty of time to teach him." "Now, there's Mara!" said the Captain, his face becoming phosphorescent with a sort of mild radiance of pleasure as it usually was when he spoke of her; "she's real sharp set after books; she's ready to fly out of her little skin at the sight of one." "That child thinks too much, and feels too much, and knows too much for her years!" said Mr. Sewell. "If she were a boy, and you would take her away cod-fishing, as you have Moses, the sea-winds would blow away some of the thinking, and her little body would grow stout, and her mind less delicate and sensitive. But she's a woman," he said, with a sigh, "and they are all alike. We can't do much for them, but let them come up as they will and make the best of it." CHAPTER XVI THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL "Emily," said Mr. Sewell, "did you ever take much notice of that little Mara Lincoln?" "No, brother; why?" "Because I think her a very uncommon child." "She is a pretty little creature," said Miss Emily, "but that is all I know; modest--blushing to her eyes when a stranger speaks to her."