Boys -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Schools -- Juvenile fiction
'You are late to-night, dear,' she said, when her husband entered the
room.
'Yes, I have had a busy day, and am as hungry as a hunter. Chicks gone
to bed, I suppose, he added, as he looked round the room before going
to wash his hands and change his coat for a comfortable hour by his
own fireside.
A tasty hot supper was on the table when he came back, but he noticed
as he ate that his wife scarcely touched hers; but he did not ask what
was troubling her until the meal was over and the table cleared. Then
he said, leaning back in his chair--
'Now, little woman, I have done my duty to your nice supper, which I
know is all you have been waiting for. Now tell me what is amiss. Has
Flo cut her finger, or Len got into mischief?' he asked.
'No, dear, the children are all right,' said Mrs. Morrison, with a
sigh; 'but I have been wondering whether you were wise to get that
little board school boy sent to Torrington's. You did have a good deal
to do with it, I know,' added the lady.
'To be sure I did. The lad had fairly earned the Thompson Scholarship,
and, from all we heard of the lad and his relatives, we thought he
would be an acquisition to the school rather than otherwise. His
mother was a patient of mine about a year ago, and from all I saw then
I concluded that they were people who had come down in the world, for
it was easy to see that they were superior to their surroundings, and
I thought then that if ever it was in my power to help them I would
do so. The father is abroad, travelling, I understand; but he seems to
have left his family badly provided for. What have you heard about the
boy?'
'Oh, nothing,' promptly replied Mrs. Morrison. 'Only from a word Lenny
dropped I fancy he is not popular at the school, and you know what
queer notions people take sometimes; and if it was said that Dr.
Morrison sent a board school boy to the school they are all so proud
of, we might have all our old troubles over again.'
The doctor laughed. 'You think half my patients must be offended as
well as the boys at Torrington's! I have heard a whisper that some of
them don't like the new scholar; but he will live it down, I daresay,
and I am not going to notice it.'
'But, my dear, if you should lose your patients? If this boy should
disgrace himself, people will be sure to say that you had no business
to send him to such a school, and the worst of the trouble is sure to
come upon us.'
'Ah, I see you have been saddling the horse ready to go and meet it!
How many times am I to tell you, little woman, to wait until the
trouble comes to you, and then to look it squarely in the face and
fight it, if fighting is likely to do any good, and if it is not, then
bear it with all the patience and courage that God will give you, if
you only do your share in the matter? Now what has Master Len been
saying about this lad?'
'He asked if it was true that you were the means of sending that
scholarship boy to Torrington's. The boys had said you did it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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