magination. When dictating a sum in which he attributed to
himself enormous wealth, his eyes twinkled, his slender body struck a
dignified attitude, and he smiled over the class with a certain genial
condescension. When the calculation proposed did not refer to personal
income it generally illustrated the wealth of the nation, in which Mr.
Ruddiman had a proud delight. He would bid his youngsters compute the
proceeds of some familiar tax, and the vast sum it represented rolled from
his lips on a note of extraordinary satisfaction, as if he gloried in this
evidence of national prosperity. His salary at Longmeadows just sufficed to
keep him decently clad and to support him during the holidays. He had been
a master here for seven years, and earnestly hoped that his services might
be retained for at least seven more; there was very little chance of his
ever obtaining a better position, and the thought of being cast adrift, of
having to betake himself to the school agencies and enter upon new
engagements, gave Mr. Ruddiman a very unpleasant sensation. In his time he
had gone through hardships such as naturally befall a teacher without
diplomas and possessed of no remarkable gifts; that he had never broken
down in health was the result of an admirable constitution and of much
native cheerfulness. Only at such an establishment as Longmeadows--an
old-fashioned commercial 'academy,' recommended to parents by the
healthiness of its rural situation--could he have hoped to hold his ground
against modern educational tendencies, which aim at obliterating Mr.
Ruddiman and all his kind. Every one liked him; impossible not to like a
man so abounding in kindliness and good humour; but his knowledge was
anything but extensive, and his methods in instruction had a fine flavour
of antiquity. Now and then Mr. Ruddiman asked himself what was to become of
him when sickness or old age forbade his earning even the modest income
upon which he could at present count, but his happy temper dismissed the
troublesome reflection. One thing, however, he had decided; in future he
would find some more economical way of spending his holidays. Hitherto he
had been guilty of the extravagance of taking long journeys to see members
of his scattered family, or of going to the seaside, or of amusing himself
(oh, how innocently!) in London. This kind of thing must really stop. In
the coming summer vacation he had determined to save at least five
sovereigns, and he f