At last the little company reached the room that had been assigned to them.  It was the old still-room, but it had been long in disuse, and was scarcely less dim than the passages which led to it.  The high narrow window only admitted a few slanting rays of sunlight, that danced on the white vaulted roof, which was queerly curved and arched by the windings of a narrow staircase above.  It looked, however, none the less an imposing chamber to Geordie, who instinctively drew off his cap as he came in from the sunny glare of the fresh spring day to its semi-darkness.

Then Jean, who had decided that the best code of manners was to watch what Geordie did, and follow implicitly, began to pull the strings of her little bonnet, to remove it from her head.  It had been a present from Mistress Gowrie on New Year’s Day, and this was the first occasion on which Jean had worn it, though it had often been taken from its resting-place in a red cotton pocket-handkerchief, and viewed with complacency.  To-day, when it came to be-tied, she had to apply to Geordie, her unfailing help in all extremities; and he in his efforts to make an imposing bow like the one which decorated Mistress Gowrie’s ample chin, had knotted the strings after the manner of whipcord, so that they required all Grace’s ingenuity to disentangle them.

Presently, after all these preliminaries were satisfactorily accomplished, the young teacher seated herself at the table, and began, to fumble nervously among the books which she had brought to use.  There was a little story-book that Walter and she used to like long ago, in which she thought would be nice to read to them, and her mother’s Bible, in which she had been searching all the morning for what might be best to choose as the first lesson, having selected and rejected a great many parables and incidents both in the New and Old Testaments, and was even now doubtful what they should begin to read.

The sight of the books reminded Geordie of his pocket compendium of knowledge, and coming to the table he laid the dog-eared “Third Primer” in Grace’s hand, saying, “I’ve been once through, but I’m thinkin’ I’ve maybe forgot it some.  I doubt Jean doesna know one letter from another, though I’ve whiles tried to make her understand,” added Geordie, rather ruefully, as he glanced towards the smiling little maiden, who sat quite unabashed at this account of her ignorance.

Grace was rather taken aback by the sight of the spelling-book, and also by Geordie’s statement as to the amount of his knowledge, though it was the same as he had made at their first interview.  Grace, however, in her eagerness, had not understood its full import, so she gasped out in some dismay, “But you can read the Bible a little, can you not, Geordie?”

“Maybe I might, if I tried,” replied Geordie, in a hopeful tone.  “They were just goin’ to put me into the Bible when I left the school.  I have heard them reading out some of the stories, and I thought they wouldn’t be that difficult to spell out.  Maybe if I read in the primer for a while, ye’ll put me into the Bible,” he added, evidently having a strong idea of the necessity for a good foundation of spelling-book lore before proceeding to use it.