What could the word be? Annie and David were both sure they could
read the lines through all the blot. The first letter was certainly
S.
"But," said Miss Fosbrook, "do you think it is quite honourable to
try to read what Bessie did not mean us to see?"
They did not quite enter into this, but they left off trying.
"Mamma had been out in the carriage several times; and they were all
coming home on Saturday week"--that was the best news of all--"and
then we have a secret too for Miss Fosbrook."
David said he was tired of secrets, and would not guess. Annie
guessed a great deal; but Miss Fosbrook thought more about the word
she would not try to read. She began to have a strong suspicion from
whom the post-office order had come, and was the more uneasy about
the spending of David's half sovereign; but she durst say nothing,
for she knew it could do no good if he felt himself compelled against
his own will; and she saw that he was full of thought.
One day the lawn had been mown, and the children where all very busy
wheeling their little barrows, and loading them with the short grass;
David was with them at first, but when Purday left off work, he
marched after the old man in his grave deliberate way, and was seen
no more till nearly tea-time, when he walked into the school-room
with a very set look upon his solemn face, and sat himself down
cross-legged on the locker, with a sigh that seemed to come out of
the very depths of his heart.
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