" And
before six o'clock he hitched old Blaze in front of "Preacher Brown's"
door. When he knocked, Mr. Brown was making a fire in the stove, and he
was not a little surprised to see a boy by the door in patched blue-jeans
pantaloons that were too short, and a well-worn "round-about" that was
too tight. He looked at the boy's old arithmetic and slate in surprise.
"If you please, sir," said Sam, "I'm Squire Higgins' bound boy. I want to
learn somethin', but I can't go to school; and if I could, 'twouldn't
amount to much, because the master don't know as much as I do, even. I
got stalled on a sum in cube root, an' I come down here to get you to
help me out, for I'm bound to know how to do everything there is in the
old book; and I've got to be back to begin work in an hour."
The minister shook him by the hand, and sat down cheerfully, and soon put
daylight through the "sum." Then Sam got up, and feeling down in the
bottom of his pocket, he took out a quarter of a dollar. "Would that pay
you, sir? It's all I've got, and all I will get in a year, I guess. I
hope it's enough."
"Keep it! keep it!" said Mr. Brown, brushing away the tears; "God bless
you, my boy, we don't charge for such work as that.
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