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Updated: May 28, 2025
Preston had been placed at the Military Academy at West Point, my aunt thinking that it made a nice finishing of a gentleman's education, and would keep him out of mischief till he was grown to man's estate. I was left alone with Miss Pinshon to go back to Magnolia and take up my old life there.
Nothing was pleasant to me in my schoolroom, excepting my writing lessons. They were welcomed as a relief from other things. When the studies for the day were done, the next thing was to prepare for a walk. A walk with Miss Pinshon alone, for my aunt never joined us. Indeed, this winter my aunt was not infrequently away from Magnolia altogether; finding Baytown more diverting.
"It puts the mind in order," the black-eyed lady went on; "and other things come so easily after it. Daisy, do you know what I mean by 'quantity'?" I knew what I meant by quantity; but whether the English language had anything in common for Miss Pinshon and me, I had great doubts. I hesitated. "I always teach my little girls to answer promptly when they are asked anything.
The summer was very wearisome to me. I did not like the houses in which our time was spent, or the way of life led in them. Neither did Miss Pinshon, I think, for she was out of her element, and had no chance to follow her peculiar vocation.
She was a young-looking lady, younger looking than she was. She had a dark, rich complexion, and a face that I suppose would have been called handsome; it was never handsome to me. Long black curls on each side of her face, and large black eyes, were the features that first struck one; but I immediately decided that Miss Pinshon was not born a lady.
"No, ma'am." "You know nothing of the Division of the nations, of course?" I answered, nothing. I had no idea what she meant; except that England, and America, and France, were different, and of course divided. Of Peleg the son of Eber and the brother of Joktan, I then knew nothing. "And arithmetic is something you do not understand," pursued Miss Pinshon.
But it was not quick work; and though my patience did not flag again nor my attention fail, the afternoon was well on the way before I was dismissed. I had then permission to do what I liked. Miss Pinshon said she would not go to walk that day; I might follow my own pleasure. I must have been very tired; for it seemed to me there was hardly any pleasure left to follow. I got my flat and went out.
I expect nothing but she will be what do you call them? one of those people who run wild over the human race." "Pirates?" suggested Preston. "Or corsairs?" "Her mother will be disappointed," went on my aunt. "That is what I confidently expect." Miss Pinshon hinted something about the corrective qualities of mathematics; but I was too happy to heed her or care.
"Or we might all turn missionaries," said Preston; "and go among them with bags of Bibles round our necks. We might all turn missionaries." "Colporteurs," said Miss Pinshon. Then I said in my heart, "I will be one." But I went on eating my breakfast and did not look at anybody; only I listened with all my might. "I don't know about that" said my aunt.
I remember little of all that summer, save the work for Miss Pinshon, and the walks with Miss Pinshon, and a general impression of those black eyes and inflexible voice, and mathematics and dates, and a dull round of lesson getting. Not knowledge getting; that would have been quite another affair.
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