Christian life -- Fiction; City and town life -- Fiction; England -- Social conditions -- 20th century -- Fiction
Mr. Strong’nth’arm’s people had always been chapel folk; and as his
wife had often bitterly remarked, much good it had done him. Her
own inclination was towards the established church as being more
respectable; and arguing that the rent of a side pew was now within
their means, she had gained her point. For himself Mr. Strong’nth’arm
was indifferent. Hope had revived within him. He was busy on a new
invention and Sunday was the only day now on which he had leisure and
the workshop to himself. Anthony would have loved to have been there
helping, but his mother explained to him that one had to think of the
future. A little boy, spotlessly clean and neatly dressed, always to be
seen at church with his mother, was the sort of little boy that people
liked and, when the time came, were willing to help.
A case in point, proving the usefulness of the church, occurred over
this very problem of Anthony’s education. Mrs. Strong’nth’arm called on
the vicar and explained to him her trouble. The vicar saw a way out.
One of the senior pupils at the grammar school was seeking evening
employment. His mother, a widow, possessed of nothing but a small
pension, had lately died. Unless he could earn sufficient to keep him
he would have to discontinue his studies. A clever lad; the vicar could
recommend him. Mrs. Strong’nth’arm was gratitude personified. The vicar
was only too pleased. It was helping two birds with one stone. It
sounded wrong to the vicar even as he said it. But then so many things
the vicar said sounded wrong to him afterwards.
The business was concluded that same evening. Mr. Emanuel Tetteridge
became engaged for two hours a day to teach Anthony the rudiments of
learning, and by Mrs. Strong’nth’arm was generally referred to as “our
little Anthony’s tutor.” He was a nervous, silent youth. The walls of
his bed-sitting-room, to which when the din of hammers in the workshop
proved disturbing he would bear little Anthony away, was papered with
texts and mottoes, prominent among which one read: “Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might.” The preparatory education of
Anthony proceeded by leaps and bounds. The child was eager to learn.
Between the two an odd friendship grew up founded upon a mutual
respect and admiration. Young Tetteridge was clever. The vicar had
spoken more truly than he knew. He had a clever way of putting things
that made them at once plain and easy to be remembered. He could make
up poetry--quite clever poetry that sometimes made you laugh and at
other times stirred something within you which you didn’t understand
but which made you feel grand and all aglow. He drew pictures--clever
pictures of fascinating never-to-be-seen things that almost frightened
you, of funny faces, and things that made you cry. He made music out of
a thing that looked like a fiddle, but was better than a fiddle, that
he kept in a little black box; and when he played you wanted to dance
and sing and shout.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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