“Well, Davie, we’ll give you three dollars a week to start with; you come to-morrow morning and I’ll tell you what to do. Here’s a dollar of your wages in advance. I’ll take it out of your first week’s pay. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir; I understand, and I thank you, too. I’ll be back in the morning.”
Davie shot out of the store, and lost no time in getting home. The old creaky steps in the old ram-shackle house fairly sang with delight as the weight of the little boy hurried up them.
“I’ve got it, mother;” exclaimed Davie. “I’m a cash boy! The man’s going to give me three dollars a week, and he says I’ve got pluck, too; and here’s a dollar to get some breakfast with, and don’t you cry any more, for I’m going to be the man of this house now.”
At first the mother was dumfounded; then she looked confused; and then she looked—well, it passes my power to tell how she did look as she took Davie in her arms and hugged him and kissed him, the tears streaming down her cheeks. But they were tears of joy and thankfulness!
“Henry, I asked you to remain after school a few minutes because I wanted you to help me rearrange the desks and furniture, but I had another reason for asking you to remain, and I think it is more important than the one I have just stated.”
The desks had all been arranged according to the teacher’s notion, and Henry Holt had gathered up his books to go home. It was then that his teacher, Miss Ada Johnson, addressed him.
“Won’t you sit down here a minute, David?” she continued. “I wish to speak to you a minute or two.”
David quietly took a seat. He was one of the largest boys in school, and had been giving an unusual amount of trouble during the day. In fact he had been a source of annoyance ever since the new teacher had taken charge.
“David,” the teacher went on, “I wonder if you realize how hard you have made it for me in school to-day? Is there any reason why we cannot be friends and work together? And I wish to be a friend to you, if you will let me. You could help me so much and you could help your schoolmates so much if you only would. I want to ask you if you think your conduct has been manly to-day? Has it been kind?”
“I heard before I came here that you were an unruly boy. People say that you will neither study nor work, and some people say that you are a very mean boy. Some of these things may be true, David, I am sorry to say, but I want to tell you that you are the only hope of a widowed mother, and I want to say, also, that I think that you are breaking her heart.” The teacher’s voice faltered at the last words.