“Good-night! Why, it’s only half-past seven.”
“I know. I’m going to get up early; I’ve got a lot of work to do. Besides, I’m miserable.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t get any money.”
“Why not earn some? I want some one to catalogue my books for me. What do you say to doing it? I shall pay half a crown a shelf.”
Percy hesitates a bit, and looks at the bookcases, and makes a mental calculation.
“That will be about twelve pounds, won’t it? Have you got a book to write the names on?”
“What! Are you going to begin now?”
“Yes.”
And Percy sits up till eleven o’clock, and succeeds in that time in cataloguing after a fashion, and not badly for a first attempt, two of the smallest shelves in the library, for which he receives then and there five shillings, much to his own comfort and to his father’s amusement.