The Story of Antony Grace Part 29

"No, sir."

"How absurd! Who set you to do it?"

"Mr Grimstone, sir."

"But does he know that you have never handled type?"

"Yes, sir."

"a.s.s?" he muttered. "Here, come along with me, my man. No; better not, perhaps. Leave that packet alone, my boy. There, lay it down. Stand here and try and learn the case."

"Learn the case, sir?" I said, with my heart sinking within me at being given another impossible task.

"Yes, it's very easy; only wants time," he said kindly; "Here, pick up one of these pieces of type," he continued, dexterously taking up a little thin bit of black metal, "like this, and turn it in your fingers, and see what letter is stamped on the end, and then put it back in the same compartment of the case."

"Is that tray the case, sir?"

"Yes, quite right, go on. You can come and ask me anything you don't know."

I darted a grateful look at him, and eagerly began my task, though in fear and trembling, lest Mr Grimstone should come and find fault because I had not "dis'd the pie."

Few people, I think, realise the sufferings of a sensitive boy at school, or at his first launching into life, when set to some task beyond his perception or powers. The dread of being considered stupid; the fear of the task-masters, the strangeness, the uncongenial surroundings, all combine to make up a state of mental torture that produces illness; and yet it is often ridiculed, and the sufferer treated with cruelty for non-performance of that which, simple to the initiated, is to him in his ignorance an utter impossibility.

It was with a sense of relief I cannot describe that I began to lift the metal types one by one, looked at them, and put them back; and I was not long in finding out that, while the capital letters in the upper of the two trays before me ran nearly regularly A, B, C, D, and so on, and beneath them the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, the lower case was a perfect puzzle.

The compartments were not like those above, all small squares, and the same size, but some were very large, and some very small; some were long, and some were square; but I found that they were made upon a regular plan. For instance, there was one very large compartment nearly in the middle at the top of the lower tray, that was evidently six times as big as the small compartments; while below and beside it were many more that were four times as big as the small ones; others being only twice as big.

I naturally examined the large compartment first, and found it full of little thin slips of metal nearly an inch long, at the end of each of which, and beautifully formed, was the letter _e_. There was no doubt about it, and it was evident that there were more _e's_ than anything else. Then under it I found the compartment full of _h's_, and away to the left, _n's_ and _m's_; _t's_, _d's_, _u's_, _o's_, _a's_, and _r's_ were in other large compartments, and it gradually dawned upon my mind that these letters were placed where they would be handiest for use, and that there was the largest number of those that would be most frequently required.

My surmise was quite right, and with this idea as the key, I soon found out that little-used _x_ and _z_ were in very small numbers, in the most out-of-the-way parts of the tray, just as were the double letters _ae_ and _oe_, etc. One compartment close under my hand, and very full, puzzled me the most, for the pieces of metal therein were short, and had no letters on the end; and at last, after trying in vain to understand their meaning, I determined to ask the dark man next time he pa.s.sed, and went on trying to master my task with the strange clicking noise made by the men going on all round.

I hardly dared glance about, but in the casual glimpses I stole, I began to understand now that the men about me were picking up, letter by letter, the types, to form words, and arranging them in little curiously shaped tools they held in their hands.

I had been busily learning my letters for about half an hour, when the big, fat-headed boy came up to me.

"Now then!" he said, in a bullying tone that was a very good imitation of the overseer's, "done that page?"

"No!" I said.

"You ain't?"

"No; I did not know how."

"Oh, you'll catch it, just, when Mr Grimstone knows. You ain't coming here to do just as you like; and I tell you what it is--"

"Well, what is it, boy?" said a quiet, stern voice, and my heart, gave a joyful thump as I saw the dark man come up.

"Please, he ain't dis'd this here pie."

"No; he did not know how. I set him to learn the case."

"But Mr Grimstone said he was to--"

"Jem Smith, do you know you are a fool?" said the dark man quietly.

"I dessay I am, Mr Hallett, but Mr Grimstone said as this boy was to--"

"And if you don't go about your business I shall box your ears."

"No, you--"

He did not finish his sentence, for there was something in the deep-set dark eyes which had such an effect upon him that he sneaked off, and I turned to my protector.

"Would you please tell me why these little things have no letters on their ends, sir?" I said.

"Because they are s.p.a.ces, my boy. Don't you remember in reading a book there is a little distance between every word?"

"Yes, sir," I said eagerly; "and after a full stop there's a bigger s.p.a.ce."

"To be sure!" he said, smiling, and his pale face looked less stern and severe. "Look: these little things, as you call them, but as we call them, thick s.p.a.ces, go between every word, and these square ones after a full stop. How are you getting on?"

"I know that's _e_, sir."

"Yes; go on."

"And that's _h_, and that _o_, and _u_--_m_--_a_--_r_--_i_--_s_--_o_--_n_--_t_," I said, touching the boxes in turn.

"Good, very good," he said, "and what is that?"

"That, sir?--_d_."

"No, it is _p_. And that?"

"Oh, that is _b_."

"No, it is _q_. Now you know the meaning of mind your _p's_ and _q's_.

You must learn the difference, and try to recollect this; all the letters, you see, are reversed, like a seal."

"Like the motto on papa's seal. Yes, I see, sir," I said eagerly.

"That's right, my boy," he said looking at me curiously. "Go on, I am too busy to stay."

"Now! what's all this?" said Mr Grimstone, bustling up with Jem Smith.

"Please, sir," said the latter, "I telled him as he was to--"

"I found the boy unable to do what was set him, Mr Grimstone," said my protector quietly, "and told him to go on with learning his case. The boy has never been in an office before."