Part 18 (1/2)
CHAPTER XII.
HARRY JOINS THE CLIONIAN SOCIETY.
A week later Harry Walton received the following note:--
”Centreville, May 16th, 18--, ”Dear Sir: At the last meeting of the Clionian Society you were elected a member. The next meeting will be held on Thursday evening, in the Academy building.
”Yours truly, ”GEORGE SANBORN, ”Secretary.
”MR. HARRY WALTON.”
Our hero read this letter with satisfaction. It would be pleasant for him to become acquainted with the Academy students, but he thought most of the advantages which his members.h.i.+p would afford him in the way of writing and speaking. He had never attempted to debate, and dreaded attempting it for the first time; but he knew that nothing desirable would be accomplished without effort, and he was willing to make that effort.
”What have you there, Walton?” asked Clapp, noticing the letter which he held in his hand.
”You can read it if you like,” said Harry.
”Humph!” said Clapp; ”so you are getting in with the Academy boys?”
”Why shouldn't he?” said Ferguson.
”Oh, they're a stuck-up set.”
”I don't find them so--that is, with one exception,” said Harry.
”They are mostly the sones of rich men, and look down on those who have to work for a living.”
Clapp was of a jealous and envious disposition, and he was always fancying slights where they were not intended.
”If I thought so,” said Harry, ”I would not join the Society, but as they have elected me, I shall become a member, and see how things turn out.”
”It is a good plan, Harry,” said Ferguson. ”It will be a great advantage to you.”
”I wish I had a chance to attend the Academy for a couple of years,”
said our hero, thoughtfully.
”I don't,” said Clapp. ”What's the good of studying Latin and Greek, and all that rigmarole? It won't bring you money, will it?”
”Yes,” said Ferguson. ”Education will make a man more competent to earn money, at any rate in many cases. I have a cousin, who used to go to school with me, but his father was able to send him to college.
He is now a lawyer in Boston, making four or five times my income.
But it isn't for the money alone that an education is worth having.
There is a pleasure in being educated.”
”So I think,” said Harry.
”I don't see it,” said Clapp. ”I wouldn't be a bookworm for anybody.
There's Walton learning French. What good is it ever going to do him?”