England, Northern -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Jews -- Fiction
Yet Reb Monash was certainly going to see that the boy's other duties
were not neglected--his washings before food, his three several bodies
of prayer at morning, noon and night, his rigid application to the
matutinal phylacteries, his countless other duties. In the degree that
Philip's enthusiasm for that whole aspect of his existence symbolized
by his phylacteries flagged, a process considerably accelerated by the
distintegrative tide of Socialism, Reb Monash himself determined that
his son's feet should be held forcefully upon the precise road. He
frequently threatened a visit to Mr. Furness, an issue to which Philip
could not help looking forward with both pleasure and apprehension.
Philip had come into contact with the Head Master on very few
occasions, during one of which he was soundly snubbed for an effort to
display to Mr. Furness how much more intimate was his knowledge of
Shelley's philosophy than Mr. Furness'. Yet he felt that there was a
faculty in Mr. Furness for seeing with those deep-set stone-blue eyes
so deeply into a proposition that the difficult nature of his case
would be manifest to him. He felt at the same time a little discomfort
at the thought that the distinctly mediocre position he occupied in the
fortnightly form lists might attain a prominence he did not desire.
But, he reassured himself, there was always time to pick up in that
line, when he felt like it; in the meanwhile his friendship with
Sewelson was far more absorbing, particularly when it now became an
occupation which involved a savour of the perils incident to big game
hunting. In short, whenever the opportunity presented itself, he was
in Sewelson's company, and whenever Reb Monash discovered the fact he
received the punishment he risked.
Dan Jamieson had received a paltry hundred and thirty-five votes at the
General Election. But he had brought a blush of intense pleasure and
pride to Harry's cheeks by assuring him that to Harry he owed the odd
thirty-five.
"The foäk canna stand oop agin a babe!" he declared. Philip was
standing by at the time, shyly enough, and Jamieson added kindly, "and
I expect another thirty-five voäts from thee, lad, next time we sets
ball rollin'!"
Harry refused to let his friend forget the thirty-five votes which were
due from him to the Socialist cause. "It's not enough for you," he
insisted, "to talk to the chaps at the dinner hour. That's an average
of a man a month. I know. I've been doing it. You'll have to get up
and spout!"
"Don't be a fool, Harry! You know it's not my line! I'm not old
enough, anyhow!"
"Fiddle! What about me?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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