70 History of Gutta-Percha Willie.

 

hard-working man, and would rather have given
him a little money than have pressed him for a
penny. He told him one day, when he was lament-
ing that he couldn’t pay him even yez, that he was
only too glad to do anything in the least little bit
like what the Saviour did when he was in the
world—“a carpenter like you, Spelman—think of
that,” added the Doctor.

So Spelman was as full of gratitude as he could
hold. Except Hector Macallaster, the Doctor was
almost his only creditor. Medicine and shoes
were his chief trials: he kept on paying for the
latter, but the debt for the former went on accumu-
lating.

Hence it came that when Willie began to haunt
his shop, though he had hardly a single smile to
give the little fellow, he was more than pleased ;-—-
gave him odds and ends of wood; lent him what-
ever tools he wanted except the adze—that he
would not let him touch ; would drop him a hint
now and then as to the use of them; would any
moment stop his own work to attend to a diffi-
culty the boy found himself in; and, in short, paid
him far more attention than he would have
thought required of him if Willie had been his
apprentice,

From the moment he entered the workshop,
Willie could hardly keep his hands off the tools,
The very shape of them, as they lay on the bench