The stovepipe from the store went through this room, keeping it comfortably warm, and in winter 'Duke Radford and the boys slept there, because it was so terribly cold in the loft.
Katherine had come home from college in July, determined to teach school all winter, and to make a success of it, too, in a most unpromising part of the world.

But even the most enthusiastic teacher must fail to get on if there are no scholars to teach, and at present she had only Miles and Phil, her two brothers, as pupils.

This was most trying to Katherine's patience, for, of course, if there had only been pupils enough, she could have had a properly constituted school, and a salary also.

She might even have had a regular schoolhouse to teach in, instead of being compelled to use a makeshift such as this.

But everything must have a beginning, and so she had worked on bravely through the autumn, hoping against hope for more pupils.