with Roop Filgee that if you took to my ideas and didn't object, I'd
give him two bits* every time he'd kem here and help me of an arternoon
when you was away and kinder stand guard around the school-house, you
know, so as to keep the fellows off. And Roop's mighty sharp for a boy,
ye know."

* Two bits, i. e., twenty-five cents.

The master reflected a moment and concluded that Uncle Ben was probably
right. Rupert Filgee, who was a handsome boy of fourteen, was also a
strongly original character whose youthful cynicism and blunt,
honest temper had always attracted him. He was a fair scholar, with a
possibility of being a better one, and the proposed arrangement with
Uncle Ben would not interfere with the discipline of school hours
and might help them both. Nevertheless he asked good-humoredly, "But
couldn't you do this more securely and easily in your own house? I might
lend you the books, you know, and come to you twice a week."

Uncle Ben's radiant face suddenly clouded. "It wouldn't be exactly the
same kind o' game to me an' Roop," he said hesitatingly. "You see thar's
the idea o' the school-house, ye know, and the restfulness and the
quiet, and the gen'ral air o' study. And the boys around town ez
wouldn't think nothin' o' trapsen' into my cabin if they spotted what I
was up to thar, would never dream o' hunting me here."

"Very well," said the master, "let it be here then." Observing that his
companion seemed to be struggling with an inarticulate gratitude and an
apparently inextricable buckskin purse in his pocket, he added quietly,
"I'll set you a few copies to commence with," and began to lay out a few
unfinished examples of Master Johnny Filgee's scholastic achievements.