d oi'm a gwine to get larning
too. Oi've made oop my mind, and oi'm gwine to do it."

"But bain't 'ee got larning?" the miner said. "Thou canst read and write
foine, which is more nor I can do and what dost want more?"

"Oi'm a going to get larning," Jack said again, steadily repeating the
formula, "and oi'm gwine soom day to be a manager."

Bill Haden stared at the boy and then burst into a fit of laughter.
"Well, this bangs a'."

Mrs. Haden was as surprised but more sympathetic.

"Bless the boy, what hast got in your head now?"

Jack showed not the slightest sign of discomfiture at his father's
laughter.

"I met a chap to-day," he said in answer to Mrs. Haden, "as told I that
if I made up my moind to work and joost stuck to 't, I could surely make
a man o' myself, and might even roise soom day to be a manager; and I'm
a going to do it."

"Doant 'ee say a word to check the boy, Bill," Mrs. Haden said to her
husband, as he was about to burst out into jeering remarks. "I tell 'ee,
what Jack says he sticks to, and you oughter know that by this time.
What the man, whos'ever he might be, said, was right, Jack," she went
on, turning to the boy. "Larning is a great thing. So far you ain't
showed any turn for larning, Jack, as I ever see'd, but if you get it
you may raise yourself to be an overman or a viewer, though I doan't say
a manager; that seems too far away altogether. If you stick to what you
say you may do it, Jack. I can't help you in larning, for I ain't got
none myself, but if I can help you in any other way I 'ull, and so 'ull
feyther, though he does laugh a bit."

"He be roight enough to laugh," Jack said, "for I hain't had any turn
that way, I doant know as I ha' now, but I'm a going to try, and if
trying can do it," he said in his steady tones, "oi'll do it. I think I
ha' got some o' the bull-dog strain in me, and I'll hoult on to it as
Bess would hoult on to a man's throat if she pinned him."

"I know you will, my lad," Mrs. Haden said, while her husband, lighting
his pipe and turning to go out, said:

"It matters nowt to me one way or t'other, but moind, lad, larning or no
larning, thou'st got to go into the pit next week and arn your living."

"Jack," Mrs. Haden said presently, "dost know, I wouldn't do nowt wi'
this new fancy o' thine, not till arter thou'st a been to work i' the
pit for a while; a week or two will make no differ to 'ee, and thou
doan't know yet how tired ye'll be when ye coom