ion," Tommy went on. "William's Pa is doing
pretty well now, and he won't stand for any charity game. If the boy
will go back to school, Pa Turnpike will cheerfully consent, but
William won't. He's very stubborn on that point. 'Not for mine,' he
says. 'If I could stick to history and reading lessons, all right, but
the rest of the truck they try to shovel into a boy's head at school
kills me dead. Say, I've come outer the school some days almost scared
to put me feet down for fear they'd slip over the edge of the world,
and I never really know whether the sun goes around the world or the
world around the sun, and often I ain't been sure whether the sun might
hit us, or us hit the sun, and everything bust to pieces.'"

"Well, you'll have to try persuasion on him."

"We're trying it," said Tommy, "and I think we're beginning to see
daylight. It's down to the point now where William comes over and
takes luncheon in my room with Epstein and myself, and he gets an hour
of reading and instruction from the old man then, in addition to the
one in the morning. We arranged that with Whimple, and William walked
right into it. If we could only get him to cut out the slang----"

"What!"

"Well, that's just what Epstein said when I suggested it to him."

"I should think so, Tommy Watson; that boy is a natural born 'slanger.'"

Tommy laughed.

"You're laughing in the wrong place, Tommy--that boy will go on
absorbing slang to the end of his days, unless you're foolish enough to
shame it out of him. By the time he is ready to go on the stage he
will have a stock-in-trade of slang that will be the making of him, for
he is so apt and ready with it. But, tell--no, I'll tell Epstein
myself--to take care that his slang does not mar the rest of his
speech. He must not be allowed to get into the way of just mouthing
slang and nothing else. Does he read well?"

"You should hear him, Flo: it's a treat, and when he gets stuck on a
big word he dives into the dictionary head first, or questions Epstein
until he can say it properly and understand its meaning."

"That is real progress. He's a delightful mimic, too."

"Yes: he takes off Epstein, or Whimple, or myself, to the life."

"The latter must be extremely difficult," said Flo, demurely.

"True--quite true--for there's no doubt I'm a wonderful man, Flo,"
answered Tommy, solemnly: "so inscrutable and impassive--is that the
way to say it--so adept at hiding my inmost tho