"Sure and I wanted to be watchin" your face, so I did. "Tis my mother as says I"m the born fighter, and she says, "Look at the General. Does he be goin" round fightin" in times of peace? That he don"t." And she wants me to be like you and I"m goin" to be."
"What"s your name?"
"Jim."
"Well, Jim, I don"t think your mother meant that you should follow me through the street and try to walk like me. And you must not do so any more."
"But I knows how now, sir," objected Jim, who was loth to discard his new accomplishment.
"Nevertheless you must not follow me about and imitate my movements any more," forbade the General.
"And how am I to be like you then, if you won"t let me do the way you do?"
For a moment the General seemed perplexed. Then he opened the door and motioned Jim out. "Ask your mother," he said.
"I won"t," declared little Jim obstinately, when he found himself in the street. "I won"t ask her."
But he did. The coasting was excellent on a certain hill, and the hill was only a short distance northwest of the O"Callaghan home.
""Twill do Andy good to have a bit of a change and eat wanst of a supper he ain"t cooked," the widow had said. And so it was that she was alone, save for Larry, when Jim came in after school. Presently the whole affair of the morning came out, and Mrs. O"Callaghan listened with horrified ears.
"And do you know how that looked to them that seen you?" she asked severely. "Sure and it looked loike you was makin" fun of the Gineral."
"But I wasn"t," protested little Jim.
"Sure and don"t I know that? Would a b"y of mine be makin" fun of Gineral Brady?"
"He said I wasn"t to do it no more," confided little Jim humbly.
The widow nodded approbation. "And what did you say then?" she asked.
"I says to him, "How can I get to be like you, sir, when you won"t let me do the way you do?""
"And then?"
"Then he opened the door, and his hand said, "Go outside." And just as I was goin" he said, "Ask your mother.""
""Twasn"t for naught he got made a gineral," commented Mrs. O"Callaghan.
""Tis himsilf as knows a b"y"s mother is the wan. For who is it else can see how he"s so full of brag he"s loike to boorst and a-wantin" to do big things till he can"t dust good nor wash the plates clean? Dust on the father"s chair, down on the rockers where you thought it wouldn"t show, and egg on the plates, and them piled so slick wan on top of the other and lookin" as innocent as if they felt thimsilves quite clean.
Ah, Jim! Jim!"
The widow"s fourth son blushed. He cast a hasty glance over the room and was relieved to see that Larry, his mother"s only other auditor, was playing busily in a corner.
Mrs. O"Callaghan went on. She had Jim all to herself and she meant to improve her chance.
"You haint got the hang of this ambition business, Jim. That"s the trouble. You"re always tryin" to do some big thing and beat somebody.
"Tis well you should know the Lord niver puts little b"ys and big jobs together. He gives the little b"ys a chance at the little jobs, and them as does the little jobs faithful gets to be the men that does the big jobs easy."
Jim now sought to turn the conversation, the doctrine of faithfulness in small things not being at all to his taste. "And will _I_ be havin"
a bank, too, like the Gineral?" he asked.
His mother looked at him. "There you go again, Jim," she said. "And sure how can I tell whether you"ll have a bank or not? "Tisn"t all the good foightin" men as has banks. But you might try for it. And if you"ve got a bank in your eye, you"d best pay particular attintion to your dustin"
and your dishwashin". Them"s your two first steps."
Little Jim pondered as well as he was able. It seemed to him that the first steps to everything in life, according to his mother, were dusting and dishwashing. His face was downcast and he put the dishes on the table in an absent-minded way.
"What are you thinkin" about, Jim?" asked his mother after many a sidelong glance at him. "Cheer up!"
"Ain"t there no other first steps?" he asked gloomily.
"Not for you, Jim. And it"s lucky you are that you don"t loike the dustin" and the dishwashin"."
Jim was evidently mystified.
"Because, do you see, Jim, iverybody has got to larn sooner or later to do things they don"t loike to do. You"ve begun in toime, so you have, and, if you kape on, you can get a lot of it done before you come to the place where you can do what you loike, such as kapin" a bank and that.
But it"s no business. The Gineral"s business was foightin", you know. He kapes a bank jist to pa.s.s the toime."
Little Jim"s eyes widened. Here was a new outlook for him.
"But you must do "em good," admonished his mother. "There"s nothin" but bad luck goes with poor dustin" and dirty dishwashin". And spakin" of luck, it"s lucky you are I caught you at it the first toime you done "em bad, for, do you see, I"ll be lookin" out for you now for a good bit jist to be seein" that you"re a b"y that can be trusted. It"s hopin" I am you"ll be loike your father, for "twas your father as could be trusted ivery toime. And now I"ve a plan for you. We"ll be havin" Moike to show you how they lays the table at the Gineral"s. "Twill be a foine thing for you to larn, and "twill surprise Pat, and be a good thing for the little b"ys to see. Them little b"ys don"t get the chance to see much otherwheres, and they"ll have to be larnin" their manners to home, so they will. Pat and Moike with the good manners about eatin" they"ve larned at the Gineral"s, and the little b"ys without a manner to their back! Sure and "twill be a lesson to "em to see the table when you"ve larned to set it roight."
Jim brightened at once. He had had so much lesson himself to-day that it was a great pleasure to think of his younger brothers being instructed in their turn. In they came at that moment, their red little hands tingling with cold. But they were hilarious, for kind-hearted Andy had taken them to the hill, and over and over they had whizzed down its long length with him. At another time Jim might have been jealous; but to-night he regarded them from the vantage ground of his superior information concerning them. They were to be instructed. And Jim knew it, if they did not. He placed the chairs with dignity, and hoped instruction might prove as unwelcome to Barney and Tommie as it was to him. And as they jounced down into their seats the moment the steaming supper was put upon the table, and gazed at it with eager, hungry eyes, and even gave a sniff or two, he felt that here was a field for improvement, indeed. And he smiled. Not that Jim was a bad boy, or a malicious one, but when Barney and Tommie were wrong, it was the thing that they should be set right, of course.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "In they came at that moment"]
CHAPTER XVI
Pat had now been in Mr. Farnham"s employ two months and more, and never had his faithfulness slackened. He had caught the knack of measuring goods easily and tying up packages neatly. He could run off a length of calico and display it to any customer that came to him, and what most endeared him to Mr. Farnham was that he could sell.
"Best clerk I ever had," the merchant told himself. But he did not advance this "best clerk" although Pat longed and hoped for promotion.
Upon every opportunity he studied dress goods at the front end of the store, and carpets and cloaks at the rear. And day by day he went on patiently selling prints, ginghams and muslins.
""Tis the best things as are longest a-comin" sometimes," said his mother encouragingly. "Are you sellin" what you"ve got as well as you know how?"
"I am, mother."
"Well, if you are, be sure Mr. Farnham knows it, and, by the same token, he"d be knowin" it if you was gapin" in the customers" faces or hummin"
or whistlin" soft like while you waited on "em. Mr. Wall had a clerk wanst that done that way. I"ve seen him. And, by the same token, he ain"t got him now. Ladies don"t care for hummin" and whistlin" when they"re buyin" goods."
And now trade was growing heavier. The other clerks were overburdened, while Pat in his humble place had little to do. Suddenly there came a call for him at the dress counter. A lady had come in and both the other clerks were busy. She was one who continually lamented in an injured tone of voice that she lived in so small a town as Wennott, and she rarely made purchases there. Her name was Mrs. Pomeroy.
"Let us see if Pat sells her anything. It will be a wonder if he does,"
thought Mr. Farnham.