"Do you remember the time you didn"t go?" Esther said softly.
"A fellow doesn"t forget that sort of thing," he grumbled. "I so wanted to go--I had heard such a lot about it from the boys who had been. When the day of the excursion came my _Shabbos_ coat was in p.a.w.n, wasn"t it?"
"Yes," said Esther, her eyes growing humid. "I was so sorry for you, dear. You didn"t want to go in your corduroy coat and let the boys know you didn"t have a best coat. It was quite right, Benjy."
"I remember mother gave me a treat instead," said Benjamin with a comic grimace. "She took me round to Zachariah Square and let me play there while she was scrubbing Malka"s floor. I think Milly gave me a penny, and I remember Leah let me take a couple of licks from a gla.s.s of ice cream she was eating on the Ruins. It was a hot day--I shall never forget that ice cream. But fancy parents p.a.w.ning a chap"s only decent coat." He smoothed his well-brushed jacket complacently.
"Yes, but don"t you remember mother took it out the very next morning before school with the money she earnt at Malka"s."
"But what was the use of that? I put it on of course when I went to school and told the teacher I was ill the day before, just to show the boys I was telling the truth. But it was too late to take me to the Palace."
"Ah, but it came in handy--don"t you remember, Benjy, how one of the Great Ladies died suddenly the next week!"
"Oh yes! Yoicks! Tallyho!" cried Benjamin, with sudden excitement. "We went down on hired omnibuses to the cemetery ever so far into the country, six of the best boys in each cla.s.s, and I was on the box seat next to the driver, and I thought of the old mail-coach days and looked out for highwaymen. We stood along the path in the cemetery and the sun was shining and the gra.s.s was so green and there were such lovely flowers on the coffin when it came past with the gentlemen crying behind it and then we had lemonade and cakes on the way back. Oh, it was just beautiful! I went to two other funerals after that, but that was the one I enjoyed most. Yes, that coat did come in useful after all for a day in the country."
Benjamin evidently did not think of his own mother"s interment as a funeral. Esther did and she changed the subject quickly.
"Well, tell me more about your place."
"Well, it"s like going to funerals every day. It"s all country all round about, with trees and flowers and birds. Why, I"ve helped to make hay in the autumn."
Esther drew a sigh of ecstasy. "It"s like a book," she said.
"Books!" he said. "We"ve got hundreds and hundreds, a whole library--d.i.c.kens, Mayne Reid, George Eliot, Captain Marryat, Thackeray--I"ve read them all."
"Oh, Benjy!" said Esther, clasping her hands in admiration, both of the library and her brother. "I wish I were you."
"Well, you could be me easily enough."
"How?" said Esther, eagerly.
"Why, we have a girls" department, too. You"re an orphan as much as me.
You get father to enter you as a candidate."
"Oh, how could I, Benjy?" said Esther, her face falling. "What would become of Solomon and Ikey and little Sarah?"
"They"ve got a father, haven"t they? and a grandmother?"
"Father can"t do washing and cooking, you silly boy! And grandmother"s too old."
"Well, I call it a beastly shame. Why can"t father earn a living and give out the washing? He never has a penny to bless himself with."
"It isn"t his fault, Benjy. He tries hard. I"m sure he often grieves that he"s so poor that he can"t afford the railway fare to visit you on visiting days. That time he did go he only got the money by selling a work-box I had for a prize. But he often speaks about you."
"Well, I don"t grumble at his not coming," said Benjamin. "I forgive him that because you know he"s not very presentable, is he, Esther?"
Esther was silent. "Oh, well, everybody knows he"s poor. They don"t expect father to be a gentleman."
"Yes, but he might look decent. Does he still wear those two beastly little curls at the side of his head? Oh, I did hate it when I was at school here, and he used to come to see the master about something. Some of the boys had such respectable fathers, it was quite a pleasure to see them come in and overawe the teacher. Mother used to be as bad, coming in with a shawl over her head."
"Yes, Benjy, but she used to bring us in bread and b.u.t.ter when there had been none in the house at breakfast-time. Don"t you remember, Benjy?"
"Oh, yes, I remember. We"ve been through some beastly bad times, haven"t we, Esther? All I say is you wouldn"t like father coming in before all the girls in your cla.s.s, would you, now?"
Esther blushed. "There is no occasion for him to come," she said evasively.
"Well, I know what I shall do!" said Benjamin decisively; "I"m going to be a very rich man--"
"Are you, Benjy?" inquired Esther.
"Yes, of course. I"m going to write books--like d.i.c.kens and those fellows. d.i.c.kens made a pile of money, just by writing down plain every-day things going on around."
"But you can"t write!"
Benjamin laughed a superior laugh, "Oh, can"t I? What about _Our Own_, eh?"
"What"s that?"
"That"s our journal. I edit it. Didn"t I tell you about it? Yes, I"m running a story through it, called "The Soldier"s Bride," all about life in Afghanistan."
"Oh, where could I get a number?"
"You can"t get a number. It ain"t printed, stupid. It"s all copied by hand, and we"ve only got a few copies. If you came down, you could see it."
"Yes, but I can"t come down," said Esther, with tears in her eyes.
"Well, never mind. You"ll see it some day. Well, what was I telling you?
Oh, yes! About my prospects. You see, I"m going in for a scholarship in a few months, and everybody says I shall get it. Then, perhaps I might go to a higher school, perhaps to Oxford or Cambridge!"
"And row in the boat-race!" said Esther, flushing with excitement.
"No, bother the boat-race. I"m going in for Latin and Greek. I"ve begun to learn French already. So I shall know three foreign languages."
"Four!" said Esther, "you forget Hebrew!"
"Oh, of course, Hebrew. I don"t reckon Hebrew. Everybody knows Hebrew.
Hebrew"s no good to any one. What I want is something that"ll get me on in the world and enable me to write my books."
"But d.i.c.kens--did he know Latin or Greek?" asked Esther.
"No, he didn"t," said Benjamin proudly. "That"s just where I shall have the pull of him. Well, when I"ve got rich I shall buy father a new suit of clothes and a high hat--it _is_ so beastly cold here, Esther, just feel my hands, like ice!--and I shall make him live with grandmother in a decent room, and give him an allowance so that he can study beastly big books all day long--does he still take a week to read a page? And Sarah and Isaac and Rachel shall go to a proper boarding school, and Solomon--how old will he be then?"
Esther looked puzzled. "Oh, but suppose it takes you ten years getting famous! Solomon will be nearly twenty."
"It can"t take me ten years. But never mind! We shall see what is to be done with Solomon when the time comes. As for you--"
"Well, Benjy," she said, for his imagination was breaking down.