A Final Reckoning | Page 8

with his cottage,
which contrasted strongly with the room in a crowded street which he
had occupied in London; and his wife was still more pleased.
"I am sure we shall be happy and comfortable here, James," she said,
"and the air feels so fresh and pure that I am convinced you will soon
get strong and well again. What is money to health? I am sure I shall be

ten times as happy, here, as I was when you were earning three or four
times as much, in London."
The squire and Mrs. Ellison came down the next morning, at the
opening of the school; and after a chat with the new schoolmaster and
his wife, the squire accompanied the former into the school room.
"Look here, boys and girls," he said, "Mr. Shrewsbury has come down
from London to teach you. He has been ill, and is not very strong. I
hope you will give him no trouble, and I can tell you it will be the
worse for you, if you do. I am going to look into matters myself; and I
shall have a report sent me in, regularly, as to how each of you is
getting on, with a special remark as to conduct; and I can tell you, if
any of you are troublesome you will find me down at your father's, in
no time."
The squire's words had considerable effect, and an unusual quiet
reigned in the school, after he had left and the new schoolmaster
opened a book.
They soon found that his method of teaching was very different to that
which they were accustomed to. There was no shouting or thumping on
the desk with the cane, no pulling of ears or cuffing of heads.
Everything was explained quietly and clearly; and when they went out
of the school, all agreed that the new master was a great improvement
on Master White, while the master himself reported to his wife that he
had got on better than he had expected.
Chapter 2
: The Poisoned Dog.
The boys soon felt that Mr. Shrewsbury really wished to teach them,
and that he was ready to assist those who wanted to get on. In the
afternoon the schoolmaster's wife started a sewing class for the girls
and, a week or two after he came, the master announced that such of
the elder class of boys and girls who chose to come, in the evening, to
his cottage could do so for an hour; and that he and the boys would

read, by turns, some amusing book while the girls worked. Only
Reuben Whitney and two or three others at first availed themselves of
the invitation, but these spoke so highly of their evening that the
number soon increased. Three quarters of an hour were spent in reading
some interesting work of travel or adventure, and then the time was
occupied in talking over what they had read, and in explaining anything
which they did not understand; and as the evenings were now long and
dark, the visits to the schoolmaster soon came to be regarded as a
privilege, and proved an incentive to work to those in the lower classes,
only those in the first place being admitted to them.
Reuben worked hard all through the winter, and made very rapid
progress; the schoolmaster, seeing how eager he was to get on, doing
everything in his power to help him forward, and lending him books to
study at home. One morning in the spring, the squire looked in at Mrs.
Whitney's shop.
"Mrs. Whitney," he said, "I don't know what you are thinking of doing
with that boy of yours. Mr. Shrewsbury gives me an excellent account
of him, and says that he is far and away the cleverest and most studious
of the boys. I like the lad, and owe him a good turn for having broken
in that pony for my daughter; besides, for his father's sake I should like
to help him on. Now, in the first place, what are you thinking of doing
with him?"
"I am sure I am very much obliged to you," Mrs. Whitney said. "I was
thinking, when he gets a little older, of apprenticing him to some trade,
but he is not fourteen yet."
"The best thing you can do, Mrs. Whitney. Let it be some good trade,
where he can use his wits--not a butcher, a baker, or a tailor, or
anything of that sort. I should say an upholsterer, or a mill wright, or
some trade where his intelligence can help him on. When the time
comes I shall be glad to pay his apprentice fees for him, and perhaps,
when you tell me what line he has chosen, a word from me to