Then the conversation turned on Pet’s education; Marcus and her father fondly discussing what it ought to be, and Bog listening, and looking stealthily at the young girl, still busy at her work; and they all sat, happy in thoughts of the future, far into the twilight.

CHAPTER IV.

MISS PILLBODY.

Miss Pillbody’s school was unknown to the pages of the City Directory.  It was never advertised in the newspapers, with a long list of “Hons.” and bank presidents as unimpeachable references.  The bright little plate on her door exhibited only “Pillbody,” in neat script, and no hint of the existence of a school within.  The school was select to such an extent, that not more than a dozen pupils were admitted to its privileges; and so private, that, outside of that number, its name was not known except among its graduates; and there were reasons why they should hesitate to spread its reputation abroad.  If strictly classified among the institutions of the city, it might be termed, “A school for female adults in good circumstances, whose early education had been neglected.”

The idea of this school originated with Miss Pillbody; and, like many other valuable ideas, it was hit upon quite accidentally.

Dorcas Pillbody was the only daughter of a man who had amassed a fortune in the oyster business, and had finally retired to a four-story house in Sixteenth street, near the Sixth Avenue, where he purposed to spend the balance of his days in the dignified enjoyment of his hard-earned money.  To this secluded oyster dealer, as solitary and happy in the midst of his new grandeur as a bivalve in its native bed, came a plausible stockbroker, who, after a series of interviews, persuaded Mr. Pillbody to make a small investment in the “Sky Blue Ridge Pure Vein Copper Mining Company.”

The small investment unfortunately turned out well.  In less than sixty days, the shares that he had bought at ten per cent, sold at seventy-five, and ultimately advanced to par.  Delighted with this unexpected result, Mr. Pillbody determined to stake largely (he had been a wholesale oyster dealer, and was a man of comprehensive ideas).  Again his venture prospered.  Mr. Pillbody, intoxicated with success, invested his entire means in the purchase of two new mines in a Southern State, whose unparalleled richness was certified to by mineralogists of great reputation.

Just as Mr. Pillbody was making arrangements to bring these mines before the public, his stockbroking friend, through whom he had effected the purchase, left for Europe, and it was then discovered that Mr. Pillbody’s mines, if they existed at all, were ten feet under a swamp, on property which belonged to somebody else, the title deeds of which had been forged by the adroit operator.  Mr. Pillbody could not endure his misfortune.  He wrote notes bidding farewell to his wife and child, and commending them to the care of their relatives, to whom he had always been bountifully generous.  Then he went to Staten Island by ferry, there took a row boat, proceeded to a celebrated oyster bed which was the scene of his youthful labors, and drowned himself.