“He knowed enough to be a teacher, and I’m awful ignorant,” said Dick.
“But you needn’t stay so.”
“How can I help it?”
“Can’t you learn at school?”
“I can’t go to school ’cause I’ve got my livin’ to earn. It wouldn’t do me much good if I learned to read and write, and just as I’d got learned I starved to death.”
“But are there no night-schools?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you go? I suppose you don’t work in the evenings.”
“I never cared much about it,” said Dick, “and that’s the truth. But since I’ve got to talkin’ with you, I think more about it. I guess I’ll begin to go.”
“I wish you would, Dick. You’ll make a smart man if you only get a little education.”