Kitabı oxu: «The Factory Boy», səhifə 4

CHAPTER V.
GOING TO SCHOOL

PRING came at last; and then what delight Ella felt in being allowed to run out of doors, and play on the new, fresh grass with the pussy Mrs. Miles had given her!

Johnny was still in the factory; and Mrs. Talbot worked away at the hose, making a very comfortable living. She could smile now at Ella's cunning ways, and laugh with Johnny at the news he brought from the mill, after his day's work was done.

He was in Mrs. Miles's class in Sabbath school, – her best scholar, she said. He had won a prize already for obtaining two new scholars; and what do you think it was? Why, a new Bible with clasps; and very proud he was of it, too. Every Sabbath he learned his verses in it, – putting in the red ribbon-mark with great care.

In the evening, Johnny read to his mother while she sewed, and now he was learning to write.

Mrs. Talbot made a copy on the slate, and he wrote underneath, trying to make every line better than the last.

One day he came running home from his work, his face looking very bright and happy.

"Mother! mother!" he called out; "I'm going to school! I'm not going to work any more, – I mean not all day. Mrs. Miles has settled it! And O mother! I'm to go there this evening for a big bundle of clothes. She's made me a jacket out of a coat of her husband's, and that was what she wanted my other jacket for. Oh! oh! I'm so glad!"

"That is news!" exclaimed Mrs. Talbot.

"I'm to be advanced," he added; "she says so, and paid by the hour; and I shall earn just as much working between schools as I do now. O mother! isn't Mrs. Miles splendid?"

In the evening, Johnny went for the bundle; and the lady accompanied him home to see how the new clothes fitted.

"It's my first trial," she said, laughing; "and I'm very proud to think that I've succeeded so well."

Johnny turned round and round, as directed, to show first the back, then the shoulders and front.

"I find I have a natural gift at tailoring," cried Mrs. Miles. "I shall throw up making hose, and devote myself to my new calling. Just see that sleeve, now! It looks as well as if it were bought from a fashionable store."

"I don't know how to thank you," murmured the widow, laughing through her tears. "I should have tried to cut them over, of course; but I'm afraid I should have made a bungling piece of work of it."

"Well, then, if you confess so much, I will tell you that I have a right to be proud; for the times that jacket has been ripped and sewed, and ripped and basted and pressed, are beyond calculation. I made a study of Mr. Miles's wedding-coat, at last, particularly the sleeves, and then I found out what my trouble was. But the victory was worth all the pains; so I don't count the four days I spent on it lost time."

"I mean to be very careful of my new clothes," said Johnny, who had been listening in open-mouthed wonder.

They both laughed at his grave tone; and then Mr. Miles came for his wife; and they talked about the Sabbath school.

"I want you, Mrs. Talbot, to do my wife a favor," said the gentleman, trying to look serious. "She is desirous of having an infant class in the Sabbath school, and wants you for the teacher. Ella, she says, is old enough to go with you."

"Me!" exclaimed the widow, in great astonishment. "Me! Why, I am not competent to teach any one."

"Neither am I," urged Mrs. Miles; "but I do love my Saviour; and I want the boys and girls around me to love him; so I try to tell them what a good Being he is, and what he has done for us. Can't you do that?"

With a deepened color the widow answered, —

"At least, I will try."

"I knew you would; and if you will only tell them the 'sweet story of old,' as I heard you telling it to Johnny one of the first visits I made you, and while I was waiting in the entry for you to answer my knock, it is all I will ask. Ever since that time I have only been waiting for summer so that the little ones, Ella among the rest, can go out."

"She tells me beautiful stories about Daniel in the lion's den," exclaimed Johnny; "and about Joseph in prison. I can read them, too, in my new Bible."

"There is a small vestry which seems made on purpose for your school," suggested Mr. Miles.

"Where we hope to see you next Sabbath," added the lady.

"I will do the best I can," was the humble reply; "and I am sure I shall love the work."

CHAPTER VI.
JOHNNY A FAVORITE

WISH you could have seen Johnny the first morning he started for school. His face was as clean as soap and water could make it; his hair was nicely parted on his broad forehead; his eyes shone like stars; and his mouth was wreathed with smiles. He wore the new suit Mrs. Miles had given him, and a clean linen collar around his neck. In one hand he carried a little pail full of dinner; and under his other arm, his spelling-book, reader, and slate. He was to call at Mrs. Miles's for a pencil; and so, after bidding his mother good-by and hearing her call after him, "Be a good lad, Johnny, and don't let any idle boys turn you from your book," he hurried away to be in season to choose a seat.

This was the first day of the term, and the earliest scholars had the best chance.

Mrs. Miles met him at the door with the long slate-pencil nicely sharpened in her hand; and, having looked at him from head to foot, she said, approvingly, —

"You are just right, Johnny, and I'm proud of you." Then she kissed his glowing cheek, and he ran down the steps.

I suppose you would like to know where the silver dollar was all this time. Why, round Johnny's neck, to be sure! You know he was to wear it till he told a lie; and, as he had never departed from the truth, it was still there, fastened to a nice ribbon that his mother had bought for it.

At school, Johnny liked his teacher and the boys; and they liked Johnny. In school he was as grave as a judge, studying his lessons with all his might; but at recess there was not a merrier boy among the whole set. Playing ball or catcher were new games to him, who had always been obliged to work so hard, and he enjoyed every moment of the time given to them.

Then he was always fair at his plays, and ready to oblige his companions. By-and-by it used to be said, —

"Don't cheat, now! Be fair, like Johnny Talbot."

This pleased Johnny's friends more than all the rest. To be sure they liked to have him a good scholar, – to have him popular among his school-mates; but it was best of all to know that he tried to do what God would approve.

At home he was just the same boy that he was when I first began to tell you about him, and was as ready to give up his pleasure to his mother and Ella as he had been to give up his scant breakfast of Indian porridge, when he knew there was not enough for all.

As you may imagine, Johnny was a very busy child. He rose almost as soon as he could see, and reached the farm where his mother and Mrs. Miles bought their milk, before the farmer was ready for him. Then he was back with his two pails, and off for the factory for a couple of hours.