“And you’ll have back work to make up the very first thing,” said Mrs. Northmore. “It’s too bad to work so hard all summer and then start into your studies at such a disadvantage.”
“I think I can manage that all right,” said the young man, confidently. “I’ve got money enough to make the ends meet for a while, without doing any outside work, and it won’t take me long to catch up.”
“Well, don’t make too brilliant a run, Mort,” said the doctor, dryly. “I hate to see a good proverb spoiled; and all work and no play ought to make Jack a dull boy, if it doesn’t.”
“I rather think Jack’s a dull boy to start with, if it knocks him out in one season,” said the young man, laughing.
He was so modest, so manly, and his buoyant energy was so refreshing, that it was no wonder they all sat looking at him as if they had a personal pride in his doings.
“But at least you won’t have to teach school this winter,” said Mrs. Northmore.
“Not unless somebody relieves me of what I’ve earned this summer,” said Morton, lightly. “In that case I’ll speak for my old place again.”
“I’ll warrant they’d let you have it,” said the doctor.
“Oh, they’ve made me the offer, already,” said Morton; “besides, I hold a first-grade certificate to teach in that county, and I might miss it on examination somewhere else.”
“Not much danger of that, I fancy,” said Mrs. Northmore, and the doctor added, growling, “Those examinations are a good deal of a humbug. For my part, I think a few oral questions put to a fellow straight out would be worth as much as all that written stuff.” He had been a county examiner once himself, and had a painful remembrance of the “stuff,” which, to tell the truth, his wife had mostly examined for him.