ez, it don't look like anythin' else," suggested Rupert, struck with a
new idea that it was perhaps more professional occasionally to encourage
his pupil. "You might get on in course o' time. But what are you doin'
all this for?" he asked suddenly.

"Doin' what?"

"This yer comin' to school when you ain't sent, and you ain't got no
call to go--you, a grown-up man!"

The color deepened in Uncle Ben's face to the back of his ears. "Wot
would you giv' to know, Roop? S'pose I reckoned some day to make a
strike and sorter drop inter saciety easy--eh? S'pose I wanted to be
ready to keep up my end with the other fellers, when the time kem? To be
able to sling po'try and read novels and sich--eh?"

An expression of infinite and unutterable scorn dawned in the eyes of
Rupert. "You do? Well," he repeated with slow and cutting deliberation,
"I'll tell you what you're comin' here for, and the only thing that
makes you come."

"What?"

"It's--some--girl!"

Uncle Ben broke into a boisterous laugh that made the roof shake,
stamping about and slapping his legs till the crazy floor trembled.
But at that moment the master stepped to the perch and made a quiet but
discomposing entrance.