Jessie by Walter Aimwell

Early the next Monday morning, a sleigh drove up to Mrs. Page's door, / containing a large man wrapped in a shaggy bear-skin coat, a girl about / fourteen years old, to whose cheeks the frosty morning air had lent a / beautiful glow, and a boy whose age might have been between twelve and / thirteen years. The girl and boy hurried into the house, and were warmly / greeted by all the family. They were Katharine and Otis Sedgwick, and / had boarded in the family for six months past, during which period they / had attended the academy. They belonged in a town about ten miles / distant. Their father, after hitching his horse in the shed, and / throwing a blanket over him, came in to have a chat with the family, and / to settle the "term bills" with Marcus. He stopped about half an hour, / and then set out for home; after which the young folks began to prepare / for school.

The academy building was about a mile distant from Mrs. Page's. In good / weather, Marcus and the students in the family usually walked to and / from school, taking their dinners with them. This first morning of the / new term was a bright though cool one, and soon after half-past eight / o'clock, the six "academicians," as Ronald called them, might have been / seen wending their way through the snow-path, towards a little white / belfry that gleamed over the tops of an evergreen forest in the / distance.