"Oh, I forgot them," said she, gaily: "I was thinking of
something else."
"You must not talk when you are riding, unless you can
contrive to manage two things at once; and no more lose
command of your horse than you would of yourself."
Ellen's eye met his, with all the contrition, affection, and
ingenuousness that even he wished to see there; and they put
their horses to the canter.
This winter was in many ways a very precious one to Ellen.
French gave her now no trouble; she was a clever
arithmetician; she knew geography admirably, and was tolerably
at home in both English and American history; the way was
cleared for the course of improvement in which her brother's
hand led and helped her. He put her into Latin; carried on the
study of natural philosophy they had begun the year before,
and which with his instructions was perfectly delightful to
Ellen; he gave her some works of stronger reading than she had
yet tried, besides histories in French and English, and higher
branches of arithmetic. These things were not crowded together
so as to fatigue, nor hurried through so as to overload.
Carefully and thoroughly she was obliged to put her mind
through every subject they entered upon; and just at that age,
opening as her understanding was, it grappled eagerly with all
that he gave her, as well from love to learning as from love
to him.
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