“The eye doctor says that, as far as seeing goes, one of my eyes might about as well have been in the back of my head; and it seems queer, but everything looks different—I didn’t know so many things were straight! And you won’t catch me missing my map questions any more! Why, the places seem fairly to jump at me, now. And—and—I do hope I can do something for you before long, Johnny, for it’s all your doing, you know. If you hadn’t helped me that day, there’s no telling when I’d have found it out.”
“Don’t you worry about doing something for me, Ted,” said Johnny, kindly. “You’ve done enough, just putting on those spectacles. You look exactly like your grandfather seen through the wrong end of a spyglass!”
CHAPTER XIII.
A CHANCE FOR A KNIGHTLY DEED.
After that first perfect Latin lesson, Johnny’s road to success seemed in a measure broken, and though he by no means achieved perfection every time, his failures were less total and humiliating, day by day, and, to use his own beautiful simile about the hat, he began to find “pegs” in his head whereon he could hang his daily stint of Latin. But it was still hard work; there was no denying that; and if his affection for his father had not been very strong and true, the task would have been still more difficult. But somehow, whenever Mr. Leslie came home looking more tired than usual, or turned into a joke one of the many little acts of self-denial and unselfish courtesy which helped to make his home so bright, it seemed to Johnny that it would be mean indeed to grumble over this one thing, which he was doing to please his father.
He had been much impressed by the manner in which he had learned that first perfect lesson, for, on the previous Sunday, when he had recited the verses which told how the five barley loaves and two small fishes had fed the hungry multitude in the wilderness, he had thought, and said, that it must have been easier for those people who saw the Master perform such miracles, to follow him, than it was now for those who must “walk by faith” entirely, with no gracious face and voice to draw them on.
His mother did not contradict him, just then; she rarely did, when he said anything like that; she preferred to wait, and let him find out for himself, with more or less help from her. So she only answered, this time,—