A pretty big resolve for so young a boy, but Jim could not endure to yield the supremacy to Andy in anything. Pat and Mike he was content to look up to, but Andy was too near his own age, and too small and frail to challenge Jim's respect. That morning Jim said little, but his ears were open. Every sentence that Andy spoke was carefully listened to, but the little fellow went to school not much enlightened. He could see the difference between his speech and Andy's, but he could not see what made the difference. And ask Andy he wouldn't. "I'll be askin' the teacher, so I will," he thought. That morning at recess, a small, red-headed, belligerent-looking boy, with a pair of mischievous blue eyes, went up to Miss Slocum's desk. But the eyes were not mischievous now. They were very earnest as they gazed up into his teacher's face. "Plaze, ma'am, will you be sayin': I'll be larnin' it yet, so I will?" Miss Slocum was surprised. "What did you say, Jim?" she asked. "Plaze, ma'am, will you say: I'll be larnin' it yet, so I will?" Miss Slocum smiled, and obligingly repeated, "I'll be larnin' it yet, so I will." "No," said Jim. "That's the way I said it. Say it right." "Say it right!" exclaimed Miss Slocum. "Yes, say it like the grammar book." "Oh," said Miss Slocum wonderingly. "I _will_ learn it yet. Is that what you wanted?" "Yes, ma'am. Will you be tellin' me some more when I want to know it?" "Certainly," responded the gratified teacher, whereat Jim went away satisfied. He smiled to himself knowingly, as he caught sight of Andy at a distance on the campus. "I'll not be askin' him nayther," he said. "I _will_ learn it yet." As for Pat, he went to the store that same morning a trifle disconsolate. He was fond of trade, but he knew almost nothing of dry goods; and here was his mother counseling him to improve his speech, and holding up to him the warning that his own inefficiency might lose him his place. "Well, I know how to sweep and dust, anyway," he thought as he unlocked the store door, went in and took up his broom. As thoroughly as before he went over everything, but much more quickly, not having the accumulated shiftlessness of former boys to contend with. And Mr. Farnham, on his arrival, found everything spotless. Customers at Pat's department that day found a very silent clerk, but one eager to oblige. Many times before he went home for the night did he display every piece of goods in his charge, and that with such an evident wish to please, that his sales were considerable. And the widow heard his report at bedtime with something like satisfaction. "And what did you say to make 'em buy?" she inquired. "Well, mother, I mostly didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say, and I couldn't say it right, neither, and so I just watched, and if they so much as turned their eyes on a piece, I got it out of the pile and showed it to 'em. I just wished with all my might to sell to 'em, and I sold to 'em."