Elsie's scholarship

by Emma Leslie

Jack was eating his bread and cheese in a sleepy fashion, for the long walk and ramble in the woods had tired him, and he and Annie had only just got back; but he was alert enough when he heard his father's news. "What job is it, dad?" he asked, eagerly.

"Oh, not a big contract; I couldn't manage that without I know a bit more of figures, and so you must get on to them, my boy, for me. I could tot up a little job like this—for it's just putting a shop front into a private house—and it's a job you can help me at when you have done at your own place. For the man wants it done quickly now he has made up his mind about it, and I may get another when this is finished, if it suits him. I must be up with the lark on Monday morning, and get that workshop ready."

And then there was another rubbing of the hands, and Bond would not have been sorry if his wife had suggested that he should commence clearing it that very night.

But Mrs. Bond hardly knew what to think of this new departure. So long as they lived in Sadler Street, she had been content to live like her neighbours, in a dirty, untidy, thriftless fashion. And it was only because Jack was always talking about the Winns and their nice house, that she decided that she would have something like it when she moved away from the old neighbourhood.

She had made a beginning with the kitchen, and felt very proud of what she had done; but why her husband and Jack should also want to turn over a new leaf us well as herself, she could not quite understand. Though she strongly suspected that it was because there was an old disused workshop at the bottom of the garden, and a gateway at the side of the house leading to it, that had put the idea into their heads. And she did not half like the notion of risking their little bit of money in taking work, instead of keeping it in the bank, and adding to it when he had the chance from his weekly wages.

Jack's father rubbed his hands with supreme satisfaction.

But she knew her husband too well to dispute with him over this, and so she sat and listened while the three talked. For Annie's arithmetic was brought into requisition in working out quantities, and it was nearly twelve o'clock before they went to bed. And then Jack dreamed of figures, and timber, and nails, and paint, and varnish, in such a confused jumble, that he woke up the next morning wishing more than ever that he had stuck to his lessons when he was at school, instead of wasting his time, as he often had done, and turning every bit of school work into a source of fun for the others to laugh at.

The other boys had thought it clever at the time, and so did he, but he knew now that if he had had more sense, he would have known better than to waste his time in such folly. For he could do nothing without Annie's help to make sure that the simplest sum was right; and upon the accuracy of working these out correctly, would depend whether his father lost money, or made a profit, upon the work he undertook. But out of this grew the steady resolution that, however distasteful it might be for a big fellow like him to go to school again, after he had begun working at a trade, he would go, and give all his attention to the intricacies of arithmetic, until he had mastered it.

He would have begun working at simple sums at once, if he could, but he was to begin helping his father with the carpentering on Monday as soon as he got home. And so his only chance to do this was in the odd minutes he might snatch during the dinner hour; and he resolved to keep a pencil and paper in his pocket, that he might do this whenever he had the chance.