"What could you do for people like the Winns?" said his sister. She had heard Elsie talked about, and admired at a distance, but the thought of emulating her, and giving more attention to her lessons, and the neatness of her appearance, had not entered her head until she heard her mother say she should try and make their new home as nice as the Winns'. And then the idea had occurred to Annie, that she might copy Elsie's example, now that she had got away from Sadler Street and her rude, rough companions.
When dinner was served, and they were all seated round the table, there were still scraps of talk about the Winns; but until he had satisfied his appetite, Mr. Bond, Jack's father, spoke no word beyond asking for more potatoes. But although he did not talk, he was listening, and at last he said, "I wish you had stuck to your lessons a bit closer, Jack; it would ha' been a deal better for yourself, and you wouldn't have led this little chap into mischief."
"That's true enough, dad; and if ever I get the chance to pick up what I lost last year in book learning, why, I'll do it," said Jack.
"Ah! If you get the chance. But will you get it now your school days are over? Boys are fools. I was, I know, and you haven't been much better, Jack, though you had better chances of getting a bit of good schooling than I had."
"Yes, I suppose I did; and I wish now I'd stuck to figures a bit more when I had the chance!" said Jack, with something like a sigh.
"Ah, you're beginning to find out already that a carpenter wants to have figures at his finger ends, if ever he is to be more than a drudge at his trade. That is where the shoe pinches for most of us, lad. We don't think of it when we are at school, and got the chance of learning, but when we leave and find out what we have lost, it is too late to pick up the wasted time. Look at me, now! I've got this bit of money your uncle left me, and if I was only a bit more of a scholard, why, I could take a building job for myself, and make it double itself in a year, but I can't figure it out for myself, and so—"
"Dad, I'll go to the evening school as soon as ever it opens," said Jack. "It ain't too late for me to learn; and I'll stick to the figures, that we may both have a better chance."
"Ah! If you only would," said his father. "Why, we might soon have a board out, 'Bond & Son, Carpenters and Builders.'"
And then Jack Bond burst into a hearty fit of laughing at the mere thought of such glory. Jack's face flushed with pride and pleasure at the thought of being their own masters by-and-bye, while mother and sister looked from one to the other, and wished they could help in the grand scheme.
"I wish Tom Winn lived close by us now; he'd help me pick up a bit, I know," said Jack, at last.