“The storm has passed away, mother,” said Edith; “and we will look for calmer and brighter skies.”

“No bright skies for us, I fear, my children,” returned the mother, with a deeper tinge of sadness in her voice.

“They are bright this hour to what they were a few days since,” said Edith, “and I am sure they will grow brighter.  I feel much encouraged.  Where the heart is willing, the way is sure to open.  Both Miriam and I are willing to do all in our power, and I am sure we can do much.  We have ability to teach others; and the exercise of that ability will bring a sure reward.  I like Uncle Hiram’s suggestion very much.”

“But the humiliation of soliciting scholars,” said the mother.

“To do right is not humiliating,” quickly replied Edith.

“It is easy to say this, my child; but can you go to Mrs. Lionel, for instance, with whose family we were so intimate, and solicit her to send Emma and Cordelia to the school you propose to open, without a smarting sense of humiliation?  I am sure you cannot.”

Edith communed with her own thoughts for some moments, and then answered—­

“If I gave way to false pride, mother, this might be so; but I must overcome what is false and evil.  This is as necessary for my happiness as the external good we seek—­nay, far more so.  Too many who have moved in the circle where we have been moving for years strangely enough connect an idea of degradation with the office of teaching children.  But is there on the earth a higher or more important use than instructing the mind and training the heart of young immortals?  It has been beautifully and truly said, that ’Earth is the nursery of Heaven.’  The teacher, then, is a worker in God’s own garden.  Is it not so, mother?”

“You think wisely, my child.  God grant that your true thoughts may sustain you in the trials to come!” replied Mrs. Darlington.

The door-bell rang as the family were rising from the tea-table.  The visitor was Mr. Ellis.  He had come to advise with and assist the distressed mother and her children; and his words were listened to with far more deference than was the case a year before.  Nine or ten months’ experience in keeping a boarding-house had corrected many of the false views of Mrs. Darlington, and she was now prepared to make an effort for her family in a different spirit from that exhibited in the beginning.  The plan proposed by her brother—­a matter-of-fact kind of person—­was the taking of a house at a more moderate rent, and opening a school for young children.  Many objections and doubts were urged; but he overruled them all, and obtained, in the end, the cordial consent of every member of the family.  During the argument which preceded the final decision of the matter, Mrs. Darlington said—­

“Suppose the girls should not be able to get scholars?”

“Let them see to this beforehand.”

“Many may promise to send, and afterwards change their minds.”