The sound alone drove Kitty nearly distracted, while the sitting up so primly to the table seemed to destroy all her interest in the lesson and her power of concentrating her mind on the study in hand.
"I can't learn in this way, Aunt Pike," she pleaded earnestly; "I can't get on a bit.

I dare say it is silly of me, but my own way doesn't do any one any harm, and I can learn my lessons in half the time, and remember them better." "Katherine, do not argue with me, but do as I tell you.

It is the right way for a young lady to sit to her studies, and it will strengthen not only your back-bone, but your character as well.

You are sadly undisciplined." So Kitty, irritated, sore, and chafing, struggled on once more with her lessons.

But to get her work done she had, after all, to take her books to bed with her, and there, far into the night, and early in the morning, she struggled bravely not only to learn, but to learn how to learn, which is one of the greatest difficulties of all to those who have grown up drinking in their knowledge not according to school methods.
Nothing but her determination not to let Anna outstrip her could have made her persevere as she did at this time, and she got on well until Anna, whether consciously or unconsciously she alone knew, interfered to stop her.
"Mother! mother!" Anna in a straight, plain dressing-gown, her hair in two long plaits down her back, tapped softly in the dead of night at her mother's door, and in a blood-curdling whisper called her name through the keyhole.
Mrs.Pike roused and alarmed, flew at once at her daughter's summons.
"What is the matter?
Are you ill?
I thought you were drinking rather much lemonade.