CHAPTER II.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 418, 9 November 1889, Page 3

CHAPTER 11.

I have told this incident in the eailiev life of Will Mallory because a good deal depended on ib. He stayed at home that day almost of course The next day his mother told him that it would be better for him nob to go to school, but to be ready for errands to the mill and elsewhere, and to be on hand when Dr. Morton came. The next day Mr Mallory was so far free from pain and fever that he began to think of his business, and their Will, who had prepared himself for this moment, said : ' Father, if you send down to the office for Mr 1 Goosequill you will only disturb things there. See if I cannot i\ rite the letters you want to write. Ido not write fast, but you know I spell well, and can make a decent-looking letter.' The plan was agood plan, and i\]r Mallory knew it was a good plan. He liked to have Will about ; he said ib was like having two bodies, as he had once heard a minister say we might have in Heaven. And then Mr Mallory would look on Will with a certain lo\ ing approval and say, ' Only one of the bodies can take a flying high leap a good deal more quickly than the other, which is a convenience sometimes' When Will went to school to bring home his books, a business which has a certain sacred aspect in a large school, the boys received the announcement that he was to stay at home for the rest of the term with general disapproval. But Will explained that as long as they chose he would be captain of the football team, and play with the nine ; and though his half holidays and whole holidays would not be as regular as theirs, he hoped to co-operate still in most of the enterprises they all had on hand for the public good, and their own entertainment, and this promise he well maintained. So there began for the boy six happy and eventful months. He was hia father's companion and friend. The arm got well, and was only a little stiff. But even after it was well enough for M r Mallory to write \\ ill did not go back to fcchool. His father had learned too well what was the pleasure of having such a companion at his side. He took Will with him when he went to caucuses and to the town meeting. As they rode together he explained co Will hi 3 RJ ans about the business — he told him why he did this and that, why he bought fcheStubbs logs and refused to buy Nathan Wilmarth's. And the boy had like confidence in his father. He asked hia advice whether their school had better play against the Academy boys — when the Academy boy 3 had behaved 80 badly in October, and made h's father come round and give his opinion on some new bats which Chenowith had at his shop from a

factory unknown. The father and son wero companions, and God meant they should be. As for book-learning, the boy's father mado him take an hour in the morning and an hour before tea for regular reading. Then there was something to read, at hand, always when ho was sitting in the office, and he was not permitted to loaf or waste time. His father gave him the Chautauqua Latin course, in which you read in English what boys read in Latin who are fitting for college, and what they read of Latin after they enter college. * It is not genorally known that all the Latin books which tie average college graduate has read do not amount to as much as two of the longer novels of Dickens. Whilo Will's schoolmates wero hammering on the Latin of Virgil's .rEneid, he was reading selected parts of it in English verse.* In his English training he had his own types, and his work as a printer. He seemed to have moro leisuro tor these than he had before. It was not really so, but he made his type-setting ' pay in,' as he said, with his other work. His father let him print the billheads and note paper for the firm, and finally their shorter circulars and* flyers.' VS ill tried to persuade him to advance to him fifteen dollars that ho might buy ' Hoe and Rake,' grand double action, reversed movement, circular dolivery Parland's Printing Press. But Mr Mallory said 'No. Whatever else you leai'n fiom me, you shall not learn debt. We will pay for jobs on the nail, and you may charge Us what is fair. But you must have the money before you spend it.' And Will did. He had as much to do as he could. The printing was good, the circulars wero neat and not showy. He delivered his 'jobs' when he said he would. And so, before Christmas ho had seventeen dollars. He was able to buy the new ' Hoe and Hake,' with a dbcount for cash, from a job printer in the village, who was always behind hand. Ib was in sotting his own type, _in reading his own proof, and in printing accurate circulars, that Will learned the correct use of his own language.