"Well, most of them. They criticise me and make fun of me. Miss Barrows showed what I wrote about tuberculosis to every other teacher in the school."
"Go on," said Paul, after a pause.
"I can"t get the English. I don"t understand the long definitions. I am not cut out for a scholar."
"Have you tried?"
"Yes, I have. But the harder I try, the worse it is."
"What lessons are you carrying?"
"English, algebra, physics, manual training, German and chemistry."
"Tell me now," said Paul good-naturedly, "which one of all these studies you hate the least."
Louis laughed. "I don"t like any studies."
"But which one would you choose first if you couldn"t help yourself?"
"Manual training."
"What do you do in that?"
"Oh, I plane and saw and glue up boards and make things."
"What things?"
Louis hesitated. "You"ll laugh."
"No, I won"t." Paul felt more like crying than laughing as Louis eyed him doubtfully.
"Great G.o.d!" he felt like saying to himself. "Here I have been so busy with everybody else"s affairs that my own son is afraid of me."
"Well, I finished a writing desk the other day. I was going to give it to mother for her birthday. I brought it home last night."
"A writing desk! Let me see it."
"It"s in my room," Louis said with some hesitation.
"I want to see it," said Paul. He rose to go up stairs and had got as far as the hall when the telephone rang.
"Go on. I"ll come as soon as I answer this," Paul said, and Louis hurried up stairs as if he wanted to get there some time before his father.
The man at the other end of the telephone wire was an angry committeeman at the State House.
"I say," he exclaimed in a strident voice that clanged into the receiver like a personal insult. "When are you coming down? We"ve been waiting here over an hour."
Paul made a lightning decision and answered. "I can"t come down to-night. I have a very important engagement elsewhere."
"Elsewhere!" snorted the irate committeeman. "Why, you made this a personal meeting. You"ve got to come down. I can"t hold Rogers to our plan if you don"t come. And Alvard is on the fence. We lack just enough to make a majority. This is your pet measure. Are you going back on it?"
"I can"t come down to-night. Put it through among you. If you really mean business you don"t need me. Stand by the bill at all costs."
The committeeman broke in with an oath: "All costs! It"s your bill. If you desert it now at this pinch, it is down and out. I can"t look after your fences."
The receiver at the other end went up with a bang and Paul realised that another one of his cherished measures had received its _coup de grace_.
Partly, he said to himself as he started up to Louis"s room, on account of the half hearted action of those who called themselves friends. What friends! Rabbits! Cowards! Self seekers! Real friends could have managed that bill without his presence and there was a show for it owing to its popular character, if anyone would push matters with energy and intelligent enthusiasm. "But was it his duty always to neglect his own children even for service to the state?" He said "No" as he went along up and into Louis"s room.
He had seldom been into the boy"s sanctum, and as he came in now he was curious, and interested in what he saw. Louis had employed the interval of his father"s presence to pick a number of things up off the floor and what he did not have time to throw on top of the bed he had kicked under it, so the room presented a fairly respectable outward appearance.
He had pulled the writing desk out into the middle of the room and as his father stopped in front of it he said suddenly: "There it is, now laugh."
Paul was simply astonished when he examined the article. To be sure, all the joints on it were not perfect by any means and one of the legs looked a little out of plumb. But as a whole the writing desk was so creditable a piece of work that he could not help saying, "I call that pretty fine. Mother will be tremendously pleased. You made it all yourself?"
"Yes, all but this little bit of carving. That Johnson started me on.
The rest of it is mine."
"It"s mighty good," said Paul, walking around it. "Straighten that leg out by amputating it just below the knee and it will------"
"Yes, I knew you would laugh at me. All the teachers do," wailed Louis.
"No, I"m not laughing at you, Louis. You have done splendid work. But you mustn"t feel badly to have your faults pointed out. That is the way to learn. If you hadn"t been in quite such a hurry you would have made a better job, wouldn"t you? Your fault, one of your faults, is lack of patience and thorough painstaking over details. Isn"t that so?"
"It must be. All my teachers say so all the time."
"Well, if they say so all the time there must be some reason for it. But honest, now, the writing desk is not a bad piece of work viewed as a whole."
Louis felt somewhat mollified and after his father had made one or two more comments they started down stairs. When they reached the hall, the telephone rang again.
"Go into the library and wait for me," Paul said as he went to the instrument.
This time it was Rogers, the doubtful member of the committee. He wanted to ask one or two questions about the bill and Paul quickly and eagerly answered him.
"But we need you right here now. We can"t do anything without you. Burke is mad and we can"t depend on him. You"ve just got to come if you want to see the thing through."
"I can"t come, Rogers. You can whip them into line." Paul rapidly shot directions at him. "Stand by the thing for my sake if not for the sake of the bill. Don"t go back on your promise."
"Promise! What"s become of yours? The thing is impossible without you. I can"t do anything with Burke and the rest of the committee are hot over your absence. Don"t blame anyone but yourself when you read the morning paper."
Paul started to answer, but the committeeman had finished, and after hesitating over the matter he went into the library and resumed his questions with Louis.
"After the manual training, which one of your studies do you take to most?"
"Oh, I don"t like any of them. Chemistry, I guess."
"Do you like mathematics?"
"I don"t mind, but I want to go into business, father. I want to quit school altogether and go into business."