She was "a quiet, genteel-looking sort of a grey-haired widow lady, who looked as if she'd seen a deal of trouble, and was badly off." The neighbourhood was not unkindly, and many folk were ready to be civil to the widow if she came to live there.
"But she never will," everybody said.

"She must let it.

Perhaps the new doctor might think of it at a low rent, he'd be glad of the field for his horse.

What could she do with an old place like that, and not a penny to keep it up with ?" What she did do was to have a school there, and that was how Walnut-tree Farm became Walnut-tree Academy..