Let no unwise parsimony, on our part,
withhold them from her."
"You are right, Timothy," said Mrs. Crump; "right, as you always
are. Follow the dictates of your own heart, and fear not that I
shall disapprove."
Accordingly Ida was, from the first, sent to a carefully-selected
private school, where she had the advantage of good associates, and
where her progress was astonishingly rapid.
She early displayed a remarkable taste for drawing. As soon as this
was discovered, her foster parents took care that she should have
abundant opportunity for cultivating it. A private master was
secured, who gave her daily lessons, and boasted everywhere of his
charming little pupil, whose progress, as he assured her friends,
exceeded anything he had ever before known.
Nothing could exceed the cooper's gratification when, on his
birthday, Ida presented him with a beautifully-drawn sketch of his
wife's placid and benevolent face.
"When did you do it, Ida?" he asked, after earnest expressions of
admiration.
"I did it in odd minutes," she said; "in the evening."
"But how could you do it without any one of us knowing what you were
about?"
"I had a picture before me, and you thought I was copying it, but
whenever I could do it without being noticed, I looked up at mother
as she sat at her sewing, and so, after awhile, I made this
picture.
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