FACING THE WORLD.

(4 Story for Boys.)

 

By THE AUTHOR oF “JouN Ha.irax, GENTLEMAN.”

LAD Iam, mother, the hol-
idaysareover. It’s quite
different going back to
school again when one
goes to be captain— as
I’m sure tobe. Isn’t it
jolly?”

Mrs. Boyd’s face as she
smiled back at Donald,
was not exactly “jolly.”

Still, she did smile; and then there came out the
strong likeness often seen between mother and
son, even when, as in this case, the features were
very dissimilar. Mrs, Boyd was a pretty, delicate
little English woman: and Donald took after his
father, a big, brawny Scotsman, certainly not
pretty, and not always sweet. Poor man! he
had of late years had only too much to make him
sour.

Though she tried to smile and succeeded, the
tears were in Mrs. Boyd’s eyes, and her mouth was
quivering. But she set it tightly together, and
then she looked more than ever like her son, or
rather, her son looked like her.

He was too eager in his delight to notice her
much. “It is jolly, isn’t it, mother? I never
thought I’d get to the top of the school at all, for
I’m not near so clever as some of the fellows. But
now I’ve got my place; and I like it, and I mean
to keep it ; you’ll be pleased at that, mother?”

“I should have been if —if-—” Mrs. Boyd tried
to get the words out and failed, closed her eyes as
_ tight as her mouth for a minute, then opened them
and looked her boy in the face gravely and sadly.

“Tt goes to my heart to tell you—I have been
waiting to say it all morning, but Donald, my dear,
you will never go back to school at all.”

“Not go back ; when I’m captain! why, you and
father both said that if I got to be that, I should
stop till I was seventeen — and now I’m only fif-
teen and a half. QO, mother, you don’t mean it!

16

 

Father couldn’t break his word! I may go back !?
Mrs. Boyd shook her head sadly, and then ex.
plained as briefly and calmly as she could, the
heavy blow which had fallen upon the father, and,
indeed, upon the whole family. Mr. Boyd had
long been troubled with his eyes, about as serious
a trouble as could have befallen a man in his pro-
fession— an accountant —as they call it in Scot-
land. Lately he had made some serious blunders
in his arithmetic, and his eyesight was so weak that
his wife persuaded him to consult a first-rate Edin-
burgh oculist, whose opinion, given only yester-
day, after many days of anxious suspense, was that
in a few months he would become incurably blind.
“ Blind, poor father blind!” Donald put his hand
before his own eyes. He was too big a boy to cry,
or at any rate, to be seen crying, but it was with a
choking voice that he spoke next: “TI’ll be his
eyes ; I’m old enough.”
“Yes ; in many ways you are, my son,” said Mrs.
Boyd, who had had a day and a night to face her
sorrow, and knew she must do so calmly. “But
you are not old enough to manage the business;
your father will require to take a partner immedi-
ately, which will reduce our income one half.
Therefore we cannot possibly afford to send you to
school again. The little ones must go, they are
not nearly educated yet, but you are. You will
have to face the world and earn your own living,
as soon as ever youcan. My poor boy!” _
“Don’t call me poor, mother. I’ve got you and
father and the rest. And, as you say, I’ve hada
good education so far. And I’m fifteen and a half,
no, fifteen and three quarters—almost a man.
I’m not afraid.” s
“Nor I,” said his mother, who had waited a full
minute before Donald could find voice to say all
this, and it was at last stammered out awkwardly
and at random. “No; Iam not afraid because
my boy has to earn his bread; I had earned mine
for years as a governess when father married me.