What came of Willie’s going to School, 67

 

also to cut his name on his slate; only he would
rather make some difference in the way of doing
it. .What if, instead of sinking the letters in the
frame, he made them stand up from the frame by
cutting it away to some depth all round them.
There was not much originality in this, for it was
only reversing what Spelman had done; but it was
more difficult, and would, he thought, be prettier,
Then what was he thus to carve? One would say,
“Why, William Macmichael, of course, and, if he
liked, Priory Leas.” But Willie was a peculiar little
fellow, and began to reason with himself whether
he had any right to put his own name on the slate.
“My father did not give me the slate,” he said,
“to be my very own, He gave me the knife like
that, but not the slate. When I am grown up, it
will belong to Agnes, What shall I put on it?
What’s mine’s papa’s, and what’s papa’s is his own,”
argued Willie —“/ know!” he said to himself at last.

The boys couldn’t imagine what he meant to do
when they saw him draw first a D and then an
O on the frame. But when they saw a C and
a T follow, they thought what a conceited little
prig Willie was!.

“Do you think you’re a doctor because your
father is, you little ape?” they said.

“No, no,’ answered Willie, laughing heartily,
but thinking, as he went on with his work, that he
might be one some day.