CHAPTER V.

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

CHAPTER Y.

Ir had always- been dimly understood fch.ifc Will Mallory was to go to school again when the spring fceim came. ' Ten weeks in spring ' hte father said : ' that is what I had, and 1 do not want you to get out of touch with the other boys. You are no better than they are, if you are no worse,' he said fondly and proudly— fondly, for he and Will were like two brothers now So Will appeared at school one clay with those books which had been carried away after his father's acoidont. The teacher hardly knew what to do. He had to take Will ; the Constitution of the United States provided for that. But whereto put him? He wa3 an inch or two taller than the boys he had been classed with before — yet. ho had never • analysed ' a line of Milton and had no idea where Cape Bryan-Martin was. Still it would be ridiculous to 'put suoh a^big. fellow in with the little boys who wore" yet to learn about Capo Bryan-Mai tin. Why ! ho was too big for their desks and chairs ! 66' Will was put with the BryanMai'tin boys-, Was. charged to study extra and make up certain implied'' conditions ;' and their leaders, on the other hand, were charged in private not to mak^e fun of his ignorance, because it was not his fault that he was'behind. Much did' the teacher know about the business ' There was no danger that any boy in thafc would make fun of Will Mallory. „ And to Will the whole thing came with a new zest, which he had forgotten. He found that he listened to the teacher's explanations which used to seem such a bore. He brought to the matter a certain bust-ness-like interest, which surprised the other boys. But he very soon made them fall in with him, as a popular boy, a leader to Will. He was" not afraid of the teacher, who came to be vory fond of this ignorant but intelligent fellow, who had never heard of Cape Bryan-Martin, but asked suoh in~telligent questions. Ten weeks of stiff work of this sort told with' all the boys, and when the term wa3 over the master presented the class to the committee as the largest class, and that most inteiested in its work, which he had had for yea is. . WUl'b father went to the Legislature that winter, and this meant for Will no r'aily companion. But he had many irons in the fire, and he did not mean to lot them cool. Hi 3 mother was persuadable, and she agreed that while he kept ' out of mischief ' he need not go to school. This was his joke.

For the boy had quite too much that was of use on his hands to have any time for mere sky-larking or tomfoolery. What Will did was to go to bee the publisher of the •Argus.' He made a bargain with him to come at six ovo v y evening and Eot typo till ten, when, except on ordinary occasions, the ' Argus J went to press. And Will would not make the bargain till the foreman agreed that Silas Turgot might come at six and stay till eight-rthat Will should correct his proof lor him, and that the boy should be paid for what he did. This was the Kingdom of Heaven for the boy, and Will kept him to his other duties by threatening to take him away if he failed. Few men in the office could set type faster than Will. He promised his mother that while this engagement lasted he would s'oep an houi every afternoon. And so it proved that, when Will's father came home " for good " in June, Will had 150 dollars in bank as the" upshot of his winter's type stinking, <