Her age, however, was an objection, and he must take time to see what
others thought of a child like her becoming a schoolmistress. Others
thought well of it, and so before the close of the next day it was
generally known through Honedale, as the southern part of Devonshire
was called, that pretty little Madge Clyde had been engaged as
teacher, she receiving three dollars a week, with the understanding
that she must board herself. It did not take Madeline long to
calculate that twelve times three were thirty-six, more than a tenth
of what her grandfather must borrow. It seemed like a little fortune,
and blithe as a singing bird she flitted about the house, now stopping
a moment to fondle her pet kitten, while she whispered the good news
in its very appreciative ear, and then stroking her grandfather's
silvery hair, as she said:

"You can tell them that you are sure of paying thirty-six dollars in
the fall, and if I do well, maybe they'll hire me longer. I mean to
try my very best. I wonder if ever anybody before me taught a school
when they were only fourteen and a half. Do I look as young as that?"
and for an instant the bright; childish face scanned itself eagerly in
the old-fashioned mirror, with the figure of an eagle on the top.

She did look very young, and yet there was something womanly, too, in
the expression of the face, something which said that life's realities
were already beginning to be understood by her.

"If my hair were not short I should do better. What a pity I cut it
the last time; it would have been so long and splendid now," she
continued, giving a kind of contemptuous pull at the thick, beautiful
brown hair on whose glossy surface there was in certain lights a
reddish tinge, which added to its beauty.