CONCLUSION.
The house made once more inhabitable, Peakslow's family moved back into
it. But this change did not take Lyddy away from the "castle," nor break
up Vinnie's school.
The "castle" now underwent some renovation. The long-neglected
plastering was done, and the rooms in daily use were made comfortable.
Meanwhile the boys were full of ambition regarding their water-works.
The project had cost them a good deal more trouble than they had
anticipated at first; but they were amply repaid for all on the day when
the water was finally let on, and they saw it actually run from the
spout in the back-room! Such a result had seemed to them almost too good
ever to come true; and their joy over it was increased ten-fold by the
doubts and difficulties overcome.
Jack had come over to be present when the water was brought in, and he
was almost as happy over it as they.
"No more trouble with the old well!" said Rufe.
"No more lugging water from the grove!" said Wad.
"Or going into the river head-first after it, as you and I did!" said
Link.
Vinnie was proud of her nephews, and Caroline and Lord were proud of
their sons.
[Illustration: THE WATER QUESTION SETTLED.]
"How fine it will be for your dairy, in summer,--this cold, running
water!" said Vinnie.
But Chokie seemed best pleased, because he would no longer be dependent
upon precarious rains filling the hogshead, but would have a whole
tankful of water--an ocean in the back-room--to sail his shingle boats
on.
The boys had also acted on another suggestion of Jack's, and taken the
farm to work. This plan also promised to succeed well. The prospect of
doing something for themselves, roused energies which might have lain
dormant all their lives, if they had been contented to sit still and
wait for others to help them.
As Vinnie's school became known, other pupils appeared from up and down
the river, and by the first snowfall she had more than a dozen scholars.
Among these were Sal Wiggett and two big boys belonging to the paternal
Wiggett's "third crap" of children, and Dud and Zeph Peakslow.
The Betterson boys also attended the school, Wad and Link as pupils, and
Rufe partly as a pupil and partly as an assistant. Vinnie could teach
him penmanship and grammar, but she was glad to turn over to him the
classes in arithmetic, for which study he had a natural aptitude.
The Peakslow children, both boys and girls, had a good deal in them that
was worth cultivating; and amid the genial associations of the little
school they fast outgrew their rude and uncouth ways. It was interesting
to see Zeph and Cecie reciting the same lessons side by side, and Rufe
showing Dud about the sums that bothered him.
Caroline had very much objected to Vinnie's enlarging her school, and
especially to her receiving the big boys. The success of the experiment
surprised her. Vinnie had a charming way with the younger children, and
a peculiarly subduing influence over the big boys.
"Lavinia dear," said Caroline "what have I always said? You are a most
extraordinary girl!"
And now things came round curiously enough; and an event occurred of
which nobody could have dreamed when Vinnie set out alone, with a brave
heart, to do her simple duty to her sister's family.
It was found that she had a happy faculty for interesting and
instructing the young. So when, in the spring, a girls' school was
opened at North Mills, she was offered a place in it as assistant
teacher, which her friends there--Jack's friends--prevailed on her to
accept.
Leaving Long Woods cost her many regrets. But the better order of things
was now well established at the "castle" (which was fast ceasing to be a
castle, in the popular speech); and she felt that its inmates could
spare her very well,--if they would only think so!
Other considerations also consoled her for the change. She would still
be where she could see her relatives often; and now Jack's delightful
home was to be her own.
THE END.