In a few minutes Bessie was left alone with her mother. The
boys went to consult a favorite pear-tree in the orchard, and as Jack
was seen an hour or two later perched aloft amongst its gnarled branches
with a book, it is probable that he chose that retreat to pursue
undisturbed his seafaring studies by means of Marryat's novels.
"I like to keep up old-fashioned customs, Bessie," said her mother. "I
know the dear children have been taught their duty, and if they forget
it sometimes there is always a hope they may return. Mrs. Wiley and Lady
Latimer have asked for them to attend the Bible classes, but their
father was strongly against it; and I think, with him, that if they are
not quite so cleverly taught at home, there is a feeling in having
learnt at their mother's knees which will stay by them longer. It is
growing quite common for young ladies in Beechhurst to have classes in
the evening for servant-girls and others, but I cannot say I favor them:
the girls get together gossipping and stopping out late, and the
teachers are so set up with notions of superior piety that they are
quite spoilt. And they do break out in the ugliest hats and
clothes--faster than the gayest of the young ladies who don't pretend to
be so over-righteous. You have not fallen into that way, dear Bessie?"
"Oh no. I do not even teach in the Sunday-school at Kirkham. It is very
small. Mr. Forbes does not encourage the attendance of children whose
parents are able to instruct them themselves.
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