An elder brother was sent to call Benjamin to go to Shule with his
father and brothers. Benjamin expected a scolding from his father
similar to that which he had had from his mother, so he came into the
room looking very sulky. As nothing was said to him on the subject when
he came into the room, he took his prayer-book, and followed his father
to Shule.
Benjamin was like many other boys of 13, not very clever, but blessed
with a good deal of common sense. His great ambition was to become a
teacher, and so he worked steadily at his lessons. His reason for
wishing to be a teacher was that he wanted to rule and to punish boys as
his master did. Whenever he had a caning from his headmaster he always
consoled himself with the thought that _his_ turn would come some
day--when he was a teacher--to do the same to other boys.
When they returned from Shule and nothing was said, even at the evening
meal, about the way Benjamin had annoyed his mother, he was rather
surprised. His mother, during the time they were at Shule, had made the
living-room, which was really the kitchen, look so clean and bright with
the five lighted candles placed on the snow-white table-cloth, and the
old stove so well polished, that it almost looked as bright as a looking
glass. What interested the young ones most was the saucepan which stood
on one side of the stove waiting for its contents to be put on the
table, and, oh, how they enjoyed the sweet savour which came from it!