The Delta independent., 1907-05-24
TWO TEACHERS TALK.
By PHRONSIE.
CHAPTER THREE

Hortensia stood in the door of the lab
oratory, where the practical expert
ment of finding out how several differ
ent kinds of lunch would suit as many
different people, was being tried.
"By all MEANS" called Sophronia
gayly, making room at her own desk
for second lunch box.
Then she added in lower tone, 81
was wishing you would come, for
want to ask you about Roy.
"Oh-Roy" said Hortensia, in tone
of gentle despair; I'm tell you the
latest while peel my orange. Master
Roy came to me again last night with
his books strapped up and his jaw set,
to tell me that he was not coming to
school any more. AS this is the third
/ time he has done that same, | think |
should have bid him polite farewell
and let him go, if it had not been for
his father Mr.. Craddock himself is an
unusually well-educated man, you know;
and every time see him, he begs me
to keep Roy in school as long as we can
says he wants his son to have at least
high-school training. Too bad, isn't
it,
The trouble is" said Sophronia,
Roy didn't inherit his fathers intel
lect; his sister Bertha. down in Miss
Fay 5 room, has that; bright as dollar,
Miss Fay says"
And poor Roy has only his mothers
charming good looks-and her scatter
brains, sighed Hortensia.
Oh" said Sophronia, ''if we ONLY
had good course in manual training,
II isn't that Roy is stupid; it's only
that his mind hasn't caught up with his
body yet. Some day he is going to
wake up and go to work; if only we
can keep him in school until the awak
ening comes, He doesn't know what
he wants yet. y
"He knows one thing he wants, right
we'll" said Hortensia;-
Gold, gold, gold, gold.
Bright and yellow, hard and cold.
well, he gets that passion from his
mother. too" said Sophronia. Did
you ever talk with her without hearing
about money"
mo, said Hortensia, ''and it is his.
and his mothers ambition for money,
that is making him restless now. His
cousin George dropped out last term,
you remember, and is earning a muniti-
cent salary, cIerking at Harts'. Roy
imagines that George is getting way
ahead of him and that by the time he,
Roy, can finish high-school. George will
be on the high road to wealth, a la
Carnegie
And unfortunately we cant tell
him. said Sophronia, that if you
were to take his brain and Georges,
that boy for ten years, he might then
be as keen as Carnegie was to begin
with, If people only would learn, that
when a self-made man wins eXtraordi-
nary success, it is because he had some
sort of extraordinary ability
"W ouldn't it make boy like George
positively dizzy, if he could get sort
of birds eye view of the brain of a
man like Carnegie unused Hortensia.
| Sophronia laughed. That doesn't
help us out any with Roy she said.
Roy ought to have manual training;
not because he particularly needs the
book shelves and the fire-tongs. he
might make but because he needs that
sort of training, especially as it is the
only thing that would be likely to keep
him in school much longer.
"You couldn't make even his father
see that now." said Hortensia. He
says, 'All the boy needs is to be held
down to his books Do you suppose
he has forgotten the proverb about
leading horse to water? You can not
teach boy much when he is in a
chronic state of rebellion. Why read
the other day that they are getting
better service from telephone girls, by
giving them tlower-beds! The more
contented they are, the quicker they
dispose of calls
''lf were to talk manual training to
Mrs. Craddock," said Sophronia, II
suppose she would say it might do for
Roy, since it would increase his earning
ability, but that she preferred to teach
Bertha domestic science, herself"
"The question is-:Will she?" said
Hortensia. ''She is as proud as she
can be of Bertha's bookishness, and
doesn't want the child to so much rs
wash dish, at home
"And that's another good thing man.
ual training would do" said Sophronia
decidedly. 1T would do away with