"There now, dear, run away, and make haste, or you'll be late to school,
and that will never do."
Little Johnnie Strong obediently gathered his books together, and with
an effort to keep back the tears that were filling his eyes, held up his
face for a last kiss.
"Good-by, then, mother dear, and I'll try to be brave and remember what
you've been saying. I'll just do the very best I can, and perhaps I
shall be able to manage it after all."
"That's my brave little man, now; good-by, dearie." And Johnnie was
gone.
Very often Mrs. Strong and Johnnie had little talks at breakfast-time
about his troubles, and he used to say it helped him through the day to
remember his mother's loving words. The conversation with which this
story began was the end of one of these talks. It was getting near
examination time, and Johnnie had been trying very hard to catch up with
the other boys in his spelling and writing. Sums he could manage now
pretty well, and he read very fairly; but it seemed to him he should
_never_ be able to spell properly. "Thousands of words," he would say,
despairingly, "and no two spelt alike." However, he went off to school
very bravely, and his determination to do the best he could was a
wonderful help.
He got on very well that morning until the time came for "dictation,"
and then poor Johnnie's troubles began. He knew there were boys in his
class very little better at spelling than he, who copied from their
neighbors whenever a word was given out that they could not spell; but
Johnnie was above doing that. It was cheating and deceiving, and he
would rather every word of his exercise were wrong than be a cheat. But
that morning he was sorely tempted. He thought there had never been such
a hard piece of dictation; and when Jimmy Lane, who sat next to him,
tried to help him by whispering the letters of one very hard word, it
required some courage to ask him to stop.
At the end of the lesson the boys had to pass their books up to the
teacher for inspection, and Johnnie's worst fears were realized when his
book came back with ever so many words marked in blue pencil.
While the teacher was finishing marking the exercises, the master's bell
sounded, and the boys were dismissed for a few minutes' run in the
playground; but Johnnie was obliged to stay behind to learn to spell
correctly the words he had blundered over. Poor Johnnie! It was very
hard for him to have to stay there, trying to fix in his mind the fact
that "Receive" is spelt with the E before the I, and "Believe" with the
I before the E, while every other boy of the school was outside,
enjoying the games in which he delighted as much as any of them.
Not quite every other boy though. There was one other prisoner besides
himself--Will Maynard, and he had to stay behind because he couldn't
always remember to _pay back_ when he _borrowed_! Not that he was by any
means dishonest--it was only when he had a subtraction sum to do that he
got into this difficulty!
Johnnie and he were not chums, but, somehow, when they had the whole
school to themselves they couldn't sit on forms ten yards apart--it
seemed so very unsociable and unfriendly. So Will brought his slate over
to Johnnie, and they were soon busily discussing the difficulties of
sums and spelling.
Although Will was a good deal the older, he was not nearly so clever at
sums as Johnnie, and, moreover, he was not too proud to accept the help
that Johnnie rather timidly offered. They soon settled the difference
between the various rows of obstinate figures, and Will laid down his
slate with a sigh of relief and a grateful "Thank you, Johnnie. Now," he
continued, "let's have a go at your spelling."
By this time they began to feel quite warm friends--for it is wonderful
how quickly a little mutual help creates feelings of friendship.
Together they went over the mis-spelt words, and, with Will to help and
encourage, Johnnie soon felt quite sure that the spelling of the
particular words of that morning's exercise would never trouble him
again.
They had scarcely finished their work when the big school-bell sounded,
and the boys all came trooping in. Will had to go back to his place, but
he left a very light-hearted little boy behind him, for Johnnie and he
had vowed life-long friendship, and sums and spelling seemed to have
lost all their terrors for both of them.
When Johnnie arrived home from school he could talk of nothing but Will
Maynard, and Will, for his part, voted Johnnie "a jolly little chap."
Many a time after that day did they help each other, and when it was
reported after the examination that they had both passed, each declared
he must have failed without the other's help.
They are firm friends still, and are likely to remain so; and whenever a
difficulty occurs, in school or out, they always tackle it together;
for, as Johnnie says, "A difficulty shared is only half a difficulty."
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