“But if I go over there and help him,” said Johnny, to himself, almost speaking aloud in his earnestness, “I’ll miss my own lesson, sure!”
“And suppose you do,” said the other Johnny, “you will only get a bad mark in a good cause, but if Teddy misses his, he will be humiliated before the whole school.”
“But papa doesn’t like me to have bad marks.”
“Don’t be a mean little hypocrite, Johnny Leslie! If your father knew all about it, which would he mind most, a bad mark in your report, or a worse one in your heart? And besides, you’ve twenty-five minutes, clear. You can do both, if you’ll not be lazy.”
That settled it—that, and a sort of fancy that he heard his mother saying,—
“Even Christ pleased not Himself.”
He sprang up so suddenly that Teddy fairly “jumped,” and went straight over to the corner, saying, as he resolutely sat down,—
“Here, show me what’s bothering you, young man, and perhaps I can help you. Don’t stop to palaver—there’s no time!”
But Teddy really couldn’t help saying,—