Risen from the Ranks: Harry Walton's Success

OSCAR BECOMES A PROFESSOR

“I am afraid your friend won’t thank you for introducing me to him,” said Harry, after Fitz had left the room.

“Fitz is a snob,” said Oscar.  “He makes himself ridiculous by putting on airs, and assuming to be more than he is.  His father is in a good business, and may be rich—­I don’t know about that—­but that isn’t much to boast of.”

“I don’t think we shall be very intimate,” said Harry, smiling.  “Evidently a printer’s apprentice is something very low in his eyes.”

“When you are an influential editor he will be willing to recognize you.  Let that stimulate your ambition.”

“It isn’t easy for a half-educated boy to rise to such a position.  I feel that I know very little.”

“If I can help you any, Harry, I shall be very glad to do it.  I’m not much of a scholar, but I can help you a little.  For instance, if you wanted to learn French, I could hear your lessons, and correct your exercises.”

“Will you?” said Harry, eagerly.  “There is nothing I should like better.”

“Then I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  You shall buy a French grammar, and come to my room two evenings a week, and recite what you get time to study at home.”

“Won’t it give you a great deal of trouble, Oscar?”

“Not a bit of it; I shall rather like it.  Until you can buy a grammar, I will lend you mine.  I’ll set you a lesson out of it now.”

He took from the book-shelves a French grammar, and inviting Harry to sit down beside him, gave him some necessary explanations as to the pronunciation of words according to the first lesson.

“It seems easy,” said Harry.  “I can take more than that.”

“It is the easiest of the modern languages, to us at least, on account of its having so many words similar to ours.”

“What evening shall I come, Oscar?”

“Tuesday and Friday will suit me as well as any.  And remember, Harry, I mean to be very strict in discipline.  And, by the way, how will it do to call myself Professor?”

“I’ll call you Professor if you want me to.”

“We’ll leave all high titles to Fitz, and I won’t use the rod any oftener than it is absolutely necessary.”

“All right, Professor Vincent,” said Harry laughing, “I’ll endeavor to behave with propriety.”

“I wonder what they would say at home,” said Oscar, “if they knew I had taken up the profession of teacher.  Strange as it may seem to you, Harry, I have the reputation in the home-circle of being decidedly lazy.  How do you account for it?”

“Great men are seldom appreciated.”

“You hit the nail on the head that time—­glad I am not the nail, by the way.  Henceforth I will submit with resignation to injustice and misconstruction, since I am only meeting with the common fate of great men.”

“What time is it, Oscar?”

“Nearly ten.”

“Then I will bid you good-night,” and Harry rose to go.  “I can’t tell how much I am obliged to you for your kind offer.”

“Just postpone thanks till you find out whether I am a good teacher or not.”

“I am sure of that.”

“I am not so sure, but I will do what I can for you.  Good-night.  I’ll expect you Friday evening.  I shall see Fitz to-morrow.  Shall I give him your love?”

“Never mind!” said Harry, smiling.  “I’m afraid it wouldn’t be appreciated.”

“Perhaps not.”

As Harry left his lively companion, he felt that he had been most fortunate in securing his friendship—­not only that he found him very agreeable and attractive, but he was likely to be of great use to him in promoting his plans of self-education.  He had too much good sense not to perceive that the only chance he had of rising to an influential position lay in qualifying himself for it, by enlarging his limited knowledge and improving his mind.

“I have made a good beginning,” he thought.  “After I have learned something of French, I will take up Latin, and I think Oscar will be willing to help me in that too.”

The next morning he commenced work in the printing office.  With a few hints from Ferguson, he soon comprehended what he had to do, and made very rapid progress.

“You’re getting on fast, Harry,” said Ferguson approvingly.

“I like it,” said our hero.  “I am glad I decided to be a printer.”

“I wish I wasn’t one,” grumbled Clapp, the younger journeyman.

“Don’t you like it?”

“Not much.  It’s hard work and poor pay.  I just wish I was in my brother’s shoes.  He is a bookkeeper in Boston, with a salary of twelve hundred a year, while I am plodding along on fifteen dollars week.”

“You may do better some day,” said Ferguson.

“Don’t see any chance of it.”

“If I were in your place, I would save up part of my salary, and by and by have an office, and perhaps a paper of my own.”

“Why don’t you do it, then?” sneered Clapp.

“Because I have a family to support from my earnings—­you have only yourself.”

“It doesn’t help me any; I can’t save anything out of fifteen dollars a week.”

“You mean you won’t,” said Ferguson quietly.

“No I don’t.  I mean I can’t.”

“How do you expect I get along, then?  I have a wife and two children to support, and only get two dollars a week more than you.”

“Perhaps you get into debt.”

“No; I owe no man a dollar,” said Ferguson emphatically.  “That isn’t all.  I save two dollars a week; so that I actually support four on fifteen dollars a week—­your salary.  What do you say to that?”

“I don’t want to be mean,” said Clapp.

“Nor I. I mean to live comfortably, but of course I have to be economical.”

“Oh, hang economy!” said Clapp impatiently.  “The old man used to lecture me about economy till I got sick of hearing the word.”

“It is a good thing, for all that,” persisted Ferguson.  “You’ll think so some day, even if you don’t now.”

“I guess you mean to run opposition to young Franklin, over there,” sneered Clapp, indicating Harry, who had listened to the discussion with not a little interest.

“I think he and I will agree together pretty well,” said Ferguson, smiling.  “Franklin’s a good man to imitate.”

“If there are going to be two Franklins in the office, it will be time for me to clear out,” returned Clapp.

“You can do better.”

“How is that?”

“Become Franklin No. 3.”

“You don’t catch me imitating any old fogy like that.  As far as I know anything about him, he was a mean, stingy old curmudgeon!” exclaimed Clapp with irritation.

“That’s rather strong language, Clapp,” said Mr. Anderson, looking up from his desk with a smile.  “It doesn’t correspond with the general estimate of Franklin’s character.”

“I don’t care,” said Clapp doggedly, “I wouldn’t be like Franklin if I could.  I have too much self-respect.”

Ferguson laughed, and Harry wanted to, but feared he should offend the younger journeyman, who evidently had worked himself into a bad humor.

“I don’t think you’re in any danger,” said Ferguson, who did not mind his fellow-workman’s little ebullitions of temper.

Clapp scowled, but did not deign to reply, partly, perhaps, because he knew that there was nothing to say.

From the outset Ferguson took a fancy to the young apprentice.

“He’s got good, solid ideas,” said he to Mr. Anderson, when Harry was absent.  “He isn’t so thoughtless as most boys of his age.  He looks ahead.”

“I think you are right in your judgment of him,” said Mr. Anderson.  “He promises to be a faithful workman.”

“He promises more than that,” said Ferguson.  “Mark my words, Mr. Anderson; that boy is going to make his mark some day.”

“It is a little too soon to say that, isn’t it?”

“No; I judge from what I see.  He is industrious and ambitious, and is bound to succeed.  The world will hear of him yet.”

Mr. Anderson smiled.  He liked what he had seen of his new apprentice, but he thought Ferguson altogether too sanguine.

“He’s a good, faithful boy,” he admitted, “but it takes more than that to rise to distinction.  If all the smart boys turned out smart men, they’d be a drug in the market.”

But Ferguson held to his own opinion, notwithstanding.  Time will show which was right.

The next day Ferguson said, “Harry, come round to my house, and take tea to-night.  I’ve spoken to my wife about you, and she wants to see you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Ferguson,” said Harry.  “I shall be very glad to come.”

“I’ll wait till you are ready, and you can walk along with me.”

“All right; I will be ready in five minutes.”

They set out together for Ferguson’s modest home, which was about half a mile distant.  As they passed up the village street Harry’s attention was drawn to two boys who were approaching them.  One he recognized at once as Fitzgerald Fletcher.  He had an even more stunning necktie than when Harry first met him, and sported a jaunty little cane, which he swung in his neatly gloved hand.

“I wonder if he’ll notice me,” thought Harry.  “At any rate, I won’t be wanting in politeness.”

“Good-afternoon, Mr. Fletcher,” he said, as they met.

Fitzgerald stared at him superciliously, and made the slightest possible nod.

“Who is that?” asked Ferguson.

“It is a boy who has great contempt for printers’ devils and low apprentices,” answered Harry.  “I was introduced to him two evenings ago, but he evidently doesn’t care about keeping up the acquaintance.”

“Who is that, Fitz?” asked his companion in turn.

“It’s a low fellow—­a printer’s devil,” answered Fitz, shortly.

“How do you happen to know him?”

“Oscar Vincent introduced him to me.  Oscar’s a queer fellow.  He belongs to one of the first families in Boston—­one of my set, you know, and yet he actually invited that boy to his room.”

“He’s rather a good-looking boy—­the printer.”

“Think so?” drawled Fitz.  “He’s low—­all apprentices are.  I mean to keep him at a distance.”