“You can pour out the tea, and then ask papa to please excuse you, and you can bring your cake with you,” said Johnny, coaxingly, and to this Mrs. Leslie consented, although she said something about tyrants. She came out, presently, with two pieces of cake on a plate, and insisted upon Jim’s eating one of them, which he did without the slightest reluctance, and then went vigorously to work. You might have thought a large farm was being planted, if you had heard the earnest discussion, and the number and variety of seeds named, and dusk overtook them before they were half done. It was decided that Tiny’s lesson should be given first, as her bedtime came before Johnny’s did. The little song was quite new to Jim, and he could not join in it as readily as he had joined in the hymn, but Tiny went patiently over it, again and again, until he caught the air, and knew the words of one verse, and she did not stop until they were singing together in perfect harmony.
Then she gave him up to Johnny, and considerately left the room. Johnny brought out the card with a flourish, saying confidently,—
“We’ll just run over the letters again, to make sure, and then we’ll go on to the a-b-abs. Oh, here’s the contract—you just put your mark to it there, where we’ve left a place, and then we’ll frame it and give it to you.”
Jim listened thoughtfully, while Johnny read him the contract, but he made no motion toward affixing his mark to it.
“It don’t seem to me to be fair,” he said, “you’ll not need much work done in those little gardens, and here you’ve promised to teach me nearly every evening; I think I ought only to have a lesson when I’ve done some work.”
“Oh fiddlesticks!” said Johnny, impatiently, “you’ve worked like everything already, and besides, we like to teach you; papa says it’s the very best way to learn things, teaching them to somebody, so you see it’s just as good for us as it is for you. Come, put your mark there, where we left the hole for it,” and Johnny dipped the pen in the inkstand, and handed it to his pupil, who reluctantly made his mark in the “hole.”
“I’ll frame it to-morrow,” said Johnny, “Now for the letters. What’s that?” and he pointed to V.
Jim pondered a moment, then,—
“That’s A,” he said, confidently.