His father was watching him, from the library. When he had gone upstairs, Mr. Capen laughed.
“The boy’s gone to study,” he said to his wife. “It took a mountain to make him!”
During the next month Bennie had more than one battle with himself, and he didn’t always win out, either. But, on the whole, he did better than his father had ever dreamed he would. Spider helped him, too. Bennie had told nobody but Spider the reason for his reformation, and he had added a hope that maybe his uncle would suggest that he bring Spider along. Spider’s father owned the largest store in town, and Spider thought that if he promised to work in it spare hours that spring and the next winter, his father would let him go.
“’Sides,” Bennie said, “if you should go, Ma and Pa would let me, I bet, ’cause they think you’re what they call ‘responsible.’ So you just got to help me stick at these old books.”
Spider was a natural student. He liked to study, and it came easy to him. So day after day he made Bennie come over to his house after supper, and studied with him. When Bennie tried to talk, he said, “Shut up!” After a couple of weeks, Bennie began to make the discovery that the only way to get a lesson learned, or any job done, is to go right ahead and do it. He set himself a regular hour every day to prune in the apple orchard, and he studied hard in the school periods, and in the evenings. At the end of the month, his father called him into the library.
“Well, son,” he said, “you’ve certainly bucked up. Your report card here doesn’t look natural. Neither does the orchard.”
“Can I write to Uncle Bill now?” Bennie grinned.
“Not yet,” said his father. “You’re doing fine, but this is only one month. I’ve got to see if you can keep the habit. If you do as well next month, you may write.”
“Easy,” said Bennie.
He didn’t really mean that “easy,” but as a matter of fact, it was much easier than it had been the first month. He was getting the habit. Before the second month was over, Tom had called him “teacher’s pet,” and been knocked into a slushy snow-drift and had his neck stuffed with snow.