"A. T. MERRIMAN"
The next forenoon Myron set off in a spare hour to find the tutor whose
address Mr. Morgan had given him. If he had cherished the notion of
possibly getting along without coaching in Latin his experiences that
morning had banished it. Mr. Addicks, or Old Addie, as he was called,
was a likable sort and popular with the students, but he was capable of
a gentle sarcasm that was horribly effective with any one whose skin
was less thick than that of a rhinoceros, and an hour or so ago he had
caused Myron to heartily wish himself small enough to creep into a floor
crack and pull some dust over him! No use talking, Myron told himself as
he set forth for Mill Street, he'd have to find this chap and get right
to work. He wouldn't face that horrible Addicks again until he had put
in a solid week of being tutored. It would get him in bad at the Office,
maybe, if the instructor called on him very often in that week, for he
would just say "Not prepared," but anything was to be preferred to
standing up there like a jay and letting Addicks make fun of him!
When he reached the head of School Street he pulled the slip of paper
again from his pocket and made sure of the address. "A. T. Merriman, 109
Mill Street," was what was written there. He asked his way at the next
corner and was directed across the railroad. "Mill Street runs at right
angles to the track," said the citizen who was directing him. "You'll
see a granite building after you pass the crossing. That's Whitwell's
Mill. The street you want runs along the farther side of it." Myron
thanked him and went on down School Street. The obliging citizen gazed
after him in mingled surprise and admiration.
"Well, he's certainly a dressy boy," he murmured. "Must be Old John W.
Croesus's son!"
Mill Street wasn't far and 109 was soon found, but the character of the
district wasn't at all to Myron's liking. Ragged and dirty children
overflowed the sidewalks and played in the cobbled roadway, slatternly
women gossiped from open windows, dejected-looking men lounged at the
corners, stray cats rummaged the gutters. The houses, frame structures
whose dingy clapboards were flush with the street, had apparently seen
far better days. Now dust and grime lay thick on them and many a window
was wanting a pane of glass. The prospect of penetrating to such a place
every day was revolting, and, having found the numerals "109" above a
sagging porch, Myron was strongly inclined to turn back. But he didn't,
and a tinkle that followed his pull at the rusty knob beside the door
brought a stout and frowsy woman who wiped her hands on her apron as she
pulled the portal open.
"Mr. Merriman?" inquired Myron.
"I don't know is he in, sir. One flight up and you'll see his name on
the door. If you come again, sir, just you step right in. The door ain't
never locked in the daytime."
Myron mounted a creaky stairway guiltless of carpet and found himself
in a narrow hall from which four doors opened. In spite of dinginess
and want of repairs, the interior of 109 was, he had to acknowledge,
astonishingly clean. One of the doors did present a card to the
inquiring gaze, but in the gloom its inscription was not decipherable
and so Myron chanced it and knocked. A voice answered from beyond the
portal and nearly simultaneously a dog barked sharply. Myron entered.
The room was large and well lighted from two sides. It was also
particularly devoid of furniture, or so it looked to the visitor. A
large deal table strewn with papers and piled with books stood near
the centre of the apartment where the cross light from the two pairs
of windows fell on it. The floor was carpetless, but two scraps of
straw matting saved it from utter bareness. There was a bench under
the windows on one side and a flattened cushion and two faded pillows
adorned it. What seemed to Myron the narrowest bed in the whole wide
world, an unlovely thing of black iron rails, was pushed into a
corner, and beside it was a box from which overflowed a grey blanket.
Three chairs, one a decrepit armchair from whose leather covering
the horsehair stuffing protruded in many places, stood about. There
was also a bureau and a washstand. On the end of the former stood a
small gas-stove and various pans and cooking utensils. Books, mostly
sober-sided, dry-looking volumes, lay everywhere, on table, bureau,
window-seat, chair and even on the floor. Between the several articles
of furniture lay broad and arid expanses of unpainted flooring.
At first glance the room appeared to be inhabited only by a tall, thin
but prepossessing youth of perhaps twenty years and a Scottish terrier
whose age was a matter for conjecture since her countenance was fairly
well hidden by sandy hair. The youth was seated at the deal table and
the terrier was halfway between box and door, growling inquiringly at
the intruder. At Myron's entry Merriman tilted back in his chair, thrust
his hands into his trousers pockets and said "Good morning" in a deep,
pleasant voice. Then he added mildly: "Shut up, Tess, or I'll murder
you." The terrier gave a last growl and retired to the box. As she
settled down in it a series of astonishing squeaks emerged. Myron looked
across startledly and Merriman laughed.
"Puppies," he explained. "Six of them. That's why she's so ferocious.
Seems to think every one who comes upstairs is a kidnapper. I tell her
the silly things are too ugly to tempt any one, but she doesn't believe
me."
"Will she let me see them?" asked Myron eagerly.
"Oh, yes." Merriman drew his long length from the chair and led the way
to the box. "Now then, old lady, pile out of here and let the gentleman
have a look at your ugly ducklings."
The terrier made no objection to being removed, but the puppies cried
dismally at the parting. Myron chuckled. "Funny things!" he exclaimed.
"Why, they haven't got their eyes open yet!"
"No, they're only six days old. How's this one for a butter-ball? Isn't
he a fat rascal? All right, Tess, we won't hurt them. I vouch for the
gentleman. He never stole a puppy in all his innocent young life."
"I never did," Myron corroborated, "but I'd like to start right now!"
"Like dogs, eh?" asked the host.
"Yes, indeed. Funny thing is, though, that I've never owned one."
"No? How does that happen?"
"I don't know. My mother thinks they're rather a nuisance around the
house. Still, I dare say she'd have let me kept one if I'd insisted. I
don't suppose you--you'd care to sell one of those?"
"Oh, yes, I would. I'll have to either sell them or give them: unless I
send them off to the happy hunting ground."
"Really? How much would they be?"
"The lot?" asked Merriman, a twinkle in his eye.
"Gee, no! One!"
"Five dollars. Tess is good stock, and the father is a thoroughbred
belonging to Terrill, the stableman on Centre Street. Got a place to
keep him?"
"I'd forgot about that," owned Myron. "I'm afraid not. They wouldn't
let me have him in Sohmer, would they?"
"Scarcely!" laughed the other. "All right, old lady, back you go. Sit
down--ah--What's the name, please?"
"Foster. Mr. Morgan gave me your address. I want some tutoring in Latin,
and he said he thought you could take me on."
"Possibly. Just dump those books on the seat there. What hours do you
have free, Foster?"
"This hour in the morning and any time in the evening."
"What about afternoon?"
"I'm trying for the football team and that doesn't leave me much time
afternoons. Still, I guess we're usually through by five."
Merriman shook his head. "I'd rather not waste my time and yours,
Foster. Football practice doesn't leave a fellow in very good trim for
tutoring. Better say the evening, I guess. How would seven to nine do?"
"Two hours?" asked Myron startledly.
"Yes, you can't accomplish much in less. I can't, anyhow."
"Very well. Seven to nine. Shall I come here or----"
"I'll come to you. What's the number in Sohmer? Seventeen? All right.
We'll begin tomorrow. My terms are a dollar an hour. You pay for the
time it takes me to get to you, usually about ten minutes. Can you
arrange with your room-mate to let us have the place to ourselves at
that time?"
"Oh, yes," replied Myron confidently.
"Good. Now pull your chair over here, please, and we'll see what the job
is."
Merriman had a lean face from which two dark brown eyes looked keenly
forth. His mouth was broad and his nose straight and long. A high
forehead, a deep upper lip and a firmly pointed chin added to the
general effect of length. You couldn't have called him handsome, by
any stretch of the imagination, but there was something attractive in
his homeliness. Perhaps it was the expression of the eyes or perhaps
the smile that hovered continuously about the wide mouth. He dressed,
Myron reflected, as wretchedly as Joe Dobbins: more wretchedly, in fact,
for Joe's clothes were at least new and good of their kind, whereas
Merriman's things were old, frayed, ill-fitting. His trousers, which
bagged so at the knees that they made Merriman look crooked, had been a
positive shock to the visitor. But in spite of attire and surroundings,
Myron liked this new acquaintance. Above all, he liked his voice. It
was deep without being gruff and had a kind of--of pleasant kindliness
in it, he thought. After all, it was no fault to be poor if you
couldn't help it, he supposed; and he had known fellows back home--not
intimately, of course, but well enough to talk to--who, while poor, were
really splendid chaps.
Presently Merriman finished his questions and finished jotting down
little lines and twirls and pot-hooks on a scrap of paper. Myron rather
wished he knew shorthand too. It looked ridiculously easy the way
Merriman did it. "All right, thanks," said the latter as he laid his
pencil down. "I think I know what we've got ahead of us. Frankly, I
don't see how they let you into the third with so little Latin, Foster.
But we'll correct that. How are you at learning, by the way? Does it
come easy or do you have to grind hard?"
"Why, I think I learn things fairly easily," replied Myron doubtfully.
"Of course, Latin looks hard to me because I've never had much of it,
but I think--I hope you won't find me too stupid." Afterwards, recalling
the visit, it struck him as odd that he should have said that. Usually
he didn't trouble greatly about whether folks found him one way or
another. He was Myron Foster, take him or leave him!
"I shan't," answered Merriman. "I've had all sorts and I always manage
to get results."
"Do you do much tutoring?" Myron asked.
"A good deal. Not so much now as later. Spring's my busy time."
"I shouldn't think you'd have time for your own studies."
"I'm not taking much this year. Only four courses. I could have finished
last spring, but I wasn't quite ready for college then. By the way, if
you hear of any one wanting a nice puppy I wish you'd send them to me. I
can't keep all that litter and I'd hate to kill the poor little tykes."
"I will," Myron assured him. "And--and I'm not sure I shan't buy one
myself. I suppose I could find some one to keep him for me."
"I think so. Well, good morning. Say good-bye to the gentleman, Tess."
The terrier barked twice as Myron closed the door behind him.