Question
after question led back to the origin of the earth. She found the
nebular hypothesis, and hardly slept one night trying to comprehend it
clearly enough to put it before others in a simple fashion. Her book was
always at hand. By and by they classified each specimen, and the best of
their kind were taken to shelves in the sitting-room. Her own enthusiasm
in study was aroused, and, far from a hardship, it now became a delight.
Her spirit was contagious. The boys, always fond of "mother," wondered
what new life possessed her; but they accepted the change all the same.
She found that she could teach, and also could inspire her pupils. They
heard of a gully, five or six miles away, where crystals had been found.
Making a holiday, for which the boys worked like Trojans, they took
their lunch in the farm wagon, and rode to the spot; and if their search
was not altogether successful, it left them the memory of a happy time.
In the meantime the farm prospered. She did all the work in the house
and all the sewing, going out, too, in the garden, where she raised a
few flowers, and helping to gather vegetables. Daniel and the boys were
bitterly opposed to her helping them. "Mother," said Jerry, "if you
won't ever think you must go out, I'll do any thing to make up. I don't
want you to look like those women we see sometimes in the fields."
Generally she yielded; her work was enough for one pair of hands.
Through it all now ran the thought that her children were growing up;
they would become educated men; she would not let them get ahead, not so
as to pass her entirely.
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