(This last she had read of in books.) At first Jeremy had every intention of behaving well, in spite of that unfortunate embrace.

He was proud of his advance in life; he was no longer a baby; the nursery was now a schoolroom; he stayed up an hour later at night; he was to be allowed twopence a week pocket-money; his whole social status had risen.

He began to read for pleasure, and discovered that it was easier than he had expected, so that he passed quite quickly through "Lottie's Visit to Grandmama" into "Stumps" and out again in "Jackanapes." He heard some elder say that the road to a large fortune lay through "Sums," and, although this seemed to him an extremely mysterious statement, he determined to give the theory a chance.

In fact, he sat down the first day at the schoolroom table, Mary and Helen on each side of him, and Miss Jones facing them, with fine resolves and high ambitions.

Before him lay a pure white page, and at the head of this the noble words in a running hand: "Slow and steady wins the race." He grasped his pencil, and Miss Jones, eager to lose no time in asserting her authority, cried: "But that's not the way to hold your pencil, Jeremy, your thumb so, your finger so." He scowled and found that lifting his thumb over the pencil was as difficult as lifting Hamlet over a gate.