So he considered what and how much he must give in order to balance the account and make his merit outweigh his badness.
That was not simple and easy, for no one could tell him: So and so many masses will square you; but it was possible that he might make a miscount of one and lose everything.
The Bridge Farmer had never been stupid in his earthly affairs, and had often given too little, but never too much.
But in this deal with Heaven he thought more would be better, and as he had often read in the paper that nothing afforded a better claim on the next world than assistance in supplying priests for the many empty posts, he resolved to have a boy study for holy orders entirely at his own expense.
His choice fell upon Matthew Fottner, and this he rued more than once.
He should have considered more carefully the quality of the Fottner boy's intellectual endowments.
And he would have saved himself much vexation and much anxiety if he had taken more time and picked out some one else.
He was in too much of a hurry, and because the teacher said nothing against it and old man Fottner at once agreed with joy, he was satisfied.
Doubtless he took the priest at Eynhofen as an example, thinking that what he knew couldn't be hard to learn.
Now Matthew was not exactly stupid; but he had no very good head for studying, and his pleasure in it was not immoderate either.