Chapter I

“Julia has been to the public schools long enough,” said Mrs. Mason to her husband. “She is fifteen years old, and I am sure she can learn nothing more till she is sent to a boarding school.”

“Nonsense!”

“Besides, Mrs. Benson’s daughter has left, and Julia don’t want to go any longer.”

“Let her stay at home then.”

“Stay at home! Don’t you mean she shall have any polish?”

“Can’t you polish her, my dear?” asked the easy husband, with a good-natured smile.

“How absurdly you talk!”

“Why, my dear, you have got quite polish enough for the wife of a small merchant. I would not give a copper to have you any more of a lady than you are.”

“But Julia may be the wife of a rich man; what would she be then without music, French, and painting?”

“And she may be the wife of a poor mechanic, and these accomplishments be useless and burdensome.”

“She never shall be the wife of a mechanic if I can help it,” retorted Mrs. Mason, smartly.

“Fie, Mary; you are unreasonable. Why should she look higher than a mechanic, especially as some of our best and most reputable men are mechanics?”

“She shall not be the wife of a mechanic if I can help it,” repeated the lady.

“Why not?”

“She shall do better, and that is the reason why I want her better educated.”

“She may do worse. What are we, my dear, that we need look among the nabobs for a husband for our daughter?”

“Are you not a merchant?”

“Only a small shopkeeper.”

“Well, that’s a merchant; and I mean Julia shall marry a merchant.”

Mr. Mason yielded the point, and agreed that Julia should marry whomsoever she and her mother might choose.

“But she must be educated for her future station.”

“True, she must.”

“She must go to a boarding school, and learn French, music, painting and German.”

“And Chinese,” interposed Mr. Mason.

“She must learn all the fashionable things.”

“I believe English grammar, writing, and arithmetic are not in fashion.”

“Pooh! she knows all about these things.”

“I asked her to tell me how many bushels of potatoes a wagon seven feet long by four wide and three high would contain, and she could not make the first figure towards it.”

“I suppose there was no such question in her book.”

“Perhaps not; and she could not tell me where Sevastopol was—whether it was in China or the Sandwich Islands.”

“How foolish you are! I think likely she never happened to see the place on the map.”

“And that letter she wrote to her uncle was such horrible grammar that I was ashamed to send it.”

“No matter for that; she understands grammar very well.”

“May be she does; but she has an awkward way of showing it. I suppose washing, cooking, and baking are not fashionable either.”

“There it is again.”

“I think you would do better by her if you took her into the kitchen, and taught her these things. If she happens to marry a poor man, they will be of some service to her.”

“Time enough for these things.”

“Well, well, do as you please; but I am opposed to boarding schools; I think they do more harm than good.”

“That’s just like you! Opposed to boarding schools! Who ever heard of such a thing?”

“They spoil more young ladies than they ever benefit.”

“How in the world can it spoil them?”

“Home is the place for girls. The first thing they should be taught to love is the fireside; they ought never to be weaned from it by sending them away to undergo monastic discipline in a boarding school.”

“How foolish!”

“It gives them bad habits—makes them romantic—fills their silly heads with moonshine; and if you send Julia, ten to one she will run away with some bearded puppy.”

But it was no kind of use for Mr. Mason to argue with his wife on such a topic as this; she was bent on sending Julia to the boarding school. He was a man of peace, and, rather than make a tempest, he withdrew from the combat.